The Navy Extracted a Jet Fighter from 12,400 Feet below the Surface of the South China Sea

Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Defense suddenly faced the catastrophic prospect of forfeiting crucial defense technology to a rival when a military aircraft—packed with highly classified systems—vanished in the South China Sea. The disappearance of the single-engine stealth jet, an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, triggered a major search-and-recovery effort by a little-known Navy organization that specializes in ocean retrieval. The mission was a high-stakes race to save a Pentagon crown jewel from the extreme depths, with their frigid temperatures and crushing pressure. And it shows why the Navy now wants its crack salvage team to be able to dive even deeper.