F1 was not so impressive.
Turkey had F4 at those time. With its big radar and Sparrow it was better than F1 with average radar and less ranged 530F missile.
It mainly depends of the deepth of the wreck. For USN but after all for China. Not the same problem to operate in -500 meters than in -5000 meters.
Do china have the same salvage equipments than USN ?
And USN has a big asset : they perfectly know where the wreck is. Probably not China. And...
F111 was a special case.
F16 is a world success commercially and technically. Unfortunately F35 will only be a commercial success mainly due to the uncle sam umbrella provided with each sales, nothing more.
750 jets produce, we are now 16 years after the first preserial flight and the bird is...