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The Chinese government has taken possession of F-35 stealth fighter parts that were diverted to Hong Kong while being shipped from Australia to the US.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: About a week ago, news broke that parts from an Australian F-35 had gone missing on their way to the US, with the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office telling Politico it was “aware of a shipment issue” and working to get them back. The shipment, a cockpit canopy and weapons bay door, left Australia in late May with UPS handling delivery for Lockheed Martin, which was set to inspect the parts and possibly repair or dispose of them. Instead of flying straight to the US, the cargo touched down in South Korea, a stop that was never part of the plan, and was then rerouted to Hong Kong. No one has publicly explained why either detour happened. Australia says it is looking into how the parts were handled before they left the country but doesn’t believe anything went wrong on its side, with Defense Minister Richard Marles noting that Lockheed manages global shipping of F-35 parts under rules set by Washington.
What’s going on now: According to Bloomberg, which first reported the news citing people briefed on the incident, Chinese authorities took possession of the parts after they landed in Hong Kong and still haven’t given them back. Both components are coated with radar-absorbing material that helps the jet avoid detection, and experts say that coating could be more valuable to China than the parts themselves.
China’s Foreign Ministry claims it doesn’t know anything about the parts, and the Pentagon hasn’t given any timeline for getting them back from Beijing. In a statement, the F-35 Joint Program Office said, “We are actively working with U.S. authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence.”
Lockheed told CNN the components are “unserviceable and deemed low risk for exploitation,” and Marles said he didn’t believe anything sensitive was on board. Still, multiple congressional committees are now digging into why military jet parts were traveling on a regular UPS shipment on a route that could run through Hong Kong.
China has spent years trying to steal F-35 data through espionage, and a 2023 Government Accountability Office report found more than 1 million F-35 parts went unaccounted for in the five years leading up to it.
