I’d imagine it’s something that can be turned on and off, just like it’s stealth technology.

Edit: to further expand on this, finding the downed plane is a lot more important than it sounds. This could technically be classified as spillage considering there is classified tech in an F35. Foreign agents would benefit if they found it first. I’m pretty sure there are recon teams trained to recover downed aircraft in military zones. Considering they still are equipped with radio for communication, I’d imagine even just an encrypted message at time of impact could be useful.

Losing a plane over friendly zones shouldn’t have to worry about having a beacon that’s always on. I fail to understand why it would be silly to believe one could be useful in a jet fighter, stealth or not. I’d imagine it’s likely even present but just defunct for whatever reason in this scenario and details can’t be revealed about that, as again, it still contains classified technology.

F35s have transponders, just like every other aircraft that flies in the US. They are necessary to avoid mid-air collisions. When flying a stealth mission in enemy airspace, they can turn the transponders off.

Unfortunately, the transponder on this particular F35 is not working.

So once its on the air the jet has zero comms? That doesn’t seem right

They still have them but because of course they do. They can be turned off easily enough. I’m not sure what sorts of modes they have when ejecting. I could prolly find an AF tech and ask.

Do they not put beacons on their seats either? How did they find the pilot? I’d imagine if it were an issue, it could be deactivated in wartime or over enemy lines.

Even on home turf it’s not great if the enemy/terrorists can find out where your equipment is. Pearl Harbor was on US soil.

Obviously it would be nice in this specific scenario, but how often would that really be useful in comparison to the potential security issues that comes along with it?