- After its pilot ejected from an F-35, the Marines asked for help locating the missing aircraft.
- The aircraft stays were later found two hours north of Charleston, South Carolina.
- Ground controllers, counting on radar, were apparently unable to detect the aircraft because it flew on without its pilot.
Over the weekend, an F-35 fighter bomber flew on with out a pilot for greater than 100 miles before crashing in an isolated area in South Carolina. In the joy after the pilot ejected, ground controllers and other aircraft apparently completely lost track of the pilotless plane—largely resulting from its ability to stay undetectable on radar.
This incident highlights a dilemma for air forces that fly stealth aircraft: while the planes are invisible to enemy radar, as designed, friendly radars can’t see them either.
The Incident
The saga of the missing F-35 began Sunday, September 17, when an F-35 fighter pilot ejected after a midair “mishap.” Rescue personnel from Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Beaufort in South Carolina recovered the pilot, who was taken to a neighborhood hospital and last reported in stable condition.
In the course of the excitement, ground crews—in addition to other aircraft—lost visual and radar track of the wayward jet. The aircraft was operating on autopilot, though where exactly it was headed to was apparently unknown, because MCAS Beaufort and nearby Joint Base Charleston put out a request to the general public to assist find the missing aircraft. “Based on the jet’s last-known position and in coordination with the FAA,” Joint Base Charleston wrote on Twitter, “we’re focusing our attention north of JB Charleston, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion.”
The subsequent day, a debris field created by the aircraft slamming into the bottom was present in Williamsburg County, two hours north of Joint Base Charleston. The bottom warned the general public to “avoid the realm because the recovery team secures the debris field.” This was a nod not only to the necessity to preserve the realm for accident investigators, but additionally the key nature of the aircraft.
The Golf Ball of Death
Officials stated the jet had its transponder—the radio signal system that enables ground and air controllers to trace airborne aircraft—turned off. They said decidedly less about why they may not detect the pilotless fighter via other means, particularly stealth.
But we’ve got a reasonably good idea.
The F-35 series of fighters, including the Air Force’s F-35A, the Marine Corps’ F-35B, and the Navy’s F-35C, are second-generation stealth aircraft. The F-35 is the primary fighter bomber designed from the bottom up with stealth in mind, a standard feature in so-called fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
Radars work by sending out pulses of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation bounces back off any object it runs into. The larger the item, the greater the quantity of returned radiation; thus, an enormous bomber has a bigger return than a fighter jet. A radar can take the returned radiation, analyze it, and never only detect an object, but work out its speed and heading.
Stealth is an all-encompassing term for techniques that reduce the quantity of radiation that bounces off a stealthy aircraft. One technique is the usage of radar-absorbent materials, corresponding to iron ferrite-laced paint used on the U-2 spy plane, that allow less radiation to return to the radar system. The F-35 has a radar-absorbent coating covering the aircraft, but there are few, if any, public details about its makeup.
The second, simpler technique is the usage of special shaping within the design of the aircraft itself to cut back a radar return. A flat surface—corresponding to the fuselage of a B-52 bomber or its massive, barn-sized vertical stabilizer—provides a superb surface for radiation to bounce back and return from. The F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter was the primary operational aircraft that used shaping, particularly faceting, to diffract and scatter radar waves, stopping them from returning to the detecting radar. Advances in stealth technology mean that although the F-35 doesn’t have the older F-117A’s flat surfaces, it’s reportedly twice as stealthy. On radar, the F-35 appears to be an object the dimensions of a golf ball.
The Takeaway
Stealth, this incident makes clear, cuts each ways. The concept that the U.S. military lost track of a 16-ton F-35B fighter jet makes quite a bit more sense once you consider it’s the dimensions of a golf ball on radar. As more stealthy F-35s enter service and more “mishaps” occur, the Pentagon will proceed to call on the general public to assist locate missing stealth aircraft.