Congress Investigates After F-35 Parts Diverted to Hong Kong
- Congressional investigators are probing how F-35 fighter jet parts were diverted to Hong Kong on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's watch after the shipment vanished in June while in transit from Australia to the United States.
- An intermediary transporting components from Australia to the United States "rerouted mid-Pacific," causing the parts to arrive in Hong Kong instead; it remains unclear why the diversion occurred or who controls the shipment now.
- The shipment contained an F-35 canopy, which "contains stealth technology that only the U.S. and its allies have access to," posing risks that adversaries could reverse-engineer the prized technology if they possessed it.
- Lockheed Martin insisted it "handles every shipment with the utmost diligence," while the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Program Office confirmed it is "aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components" and is working to retrieve them.
- Closed-Door briefings for congressional staff began in June, addressing this incident alongside broader inventory concerns; a 2023 Government Accountability Office report found more than 1 million F-35 spare parts have gone missing during the past five years.
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This incident raised concerns that top-secret military technology could fall into the hands of an enemy of the United States.
Sensitive technology for F-35 fighter aircraft has been rerouted unexpectedly to Hong Kong this summer, triggering an investigation in the US Congress and raising the possibility that China could have had access to the essential components of this highly secret weapon system, reports Politico.
Sensitive technology of the F-35 fighter jet was unexpectedly redirected to Hong Kong this summer.
That is, into the special sphere of influence of China, which is extremely interested in the F-35 program.
U.S. Working to Retrieve Missing F-35 Stealth Fighter Parts Reportedly Diverted to Hong Kong
(The Epoch Times)—U.S. officials are investigating after a shipment of F-35 stealth fighter parts was diverted, potentially to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong. Politico first reported on Sept. 18 that a shipment of F-35 Lightning II fighter jet components was being shipped from Australia to the United States for repairs when the parts were […] The post U.S. Working to Retrieve Missing F-35 Stealth Fighter Parts Reportedly Diverted to Hong Kon…
US Working to Retrieve Missing F-35 Stealth Fighter Parts Reportedly Diverted to Hong Kong
A Royal Australian Air Force F-35 aircraft taxis during the Australian International Airshow in Victoria, Australia, on March 3, 2017. (Jeremy R. Dixon/AFP via Getty Images)
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