The United States Military said on Monday that it has located the wreckage of an F-15 fighter jet that crashed over the weekend in South Carolina.
Joint Base Charleston, which is located in South Carolina, said Sunday on social media that efforts were underway to locate the aircraft with the help of Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort following a “mishap” in the afternoon and asked for the public’s help in finding the stealth fighter.
Personnel from Joint Base Charleston and [Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort], in close coordination with local authorities, have located a debris field in Williamsburg County,” Joint Base Charleston said in a statement. “The debris was discovered two hours northeast of JB Charleston.”
“Teams from JB Charleston, @MCASBeaufortSC, the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing out of MCAS Cherry Point, Navy Region Southeast, the FAA, the Civil Air Patrol, as well as local, county, and state law enforcement across South Carolina have been working together to locate the U.S. Marine Corps F-35B,” the statement continued. “Members of the community should avoid the area as the recovery team secures the debris field. We are transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process.”
Retired Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle said in an interview that F-35s often times will have their radar cross sections modified when they are flying during public or semi-public flights so foreign adversaries like communist China are not able to watch and see how the plane appears on radar during combat. The radar cross section of an F-35 is so small that it appears on radar as an object roughly the size of a bumble bee.
However, if the jet’s radar cross section had not been enlarged before the flight that could explain why it was so difficult to the find the jet — the most advanced fighter jet in the world — which can cost up to $160 million each depending on how it is configured.