He is the object of all greed. A stealth F-35B plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, November 17 after taking off from the British aircraft carrier HMS. Queen Elizabeth. Its pilot had been able to eject in time. But the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is concerned about the possible recovery of the remains by Russia and the risk that it will get its hands on its technology.

Officials from the United Kingdom, the United States and the Atlantic Alliance assured, on Monday, November 22, that they would be able to recover the plane from Russia. “We’ll get it back first, I guarantee it.”said General Simon Doran, the highest-ranking American officer aboard the aircraft carrier. “We are not worried about his recovery”, declared for his part the supreme deputy commander of the allied forces for Europe, General Tim Radford, in front of the journalists on board the ship that sails through the Mediterranean.

A “really regrettable incident”

“We are not worried, because we are working on that right now. There was concern when the plane fell, but the pilot is safe and that is the most important thing ”.he added. He was unwilling to reveal details of the rescue operation.

The loss of this F-35 is a “Really regrettable incident (…), a setback “, reported the officer in charge of one of the nine ships sailing through the Mediterranean, Commander Steve Moorhouse. But, he added, “The reliability of this device and our confidence in it and in the project are intact”.

The United Kingdom has already received twenty-one American F-35Bs, most of them destined for its two aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales. The F-35Bs are a variant of the fifth-generation F-35, capable of vertical landing and short takeoff.