Pentagon investigating missing F-35 spare parts lost overseas

The Pentagon is investigating how sensitive technology in the F-35 fighter jet was diverted to Hong Kong and is currently unaccounted for, raising concerns that it could have made its way into the possession of the Chinese military.The shipment of parts was intended to go from Australia to the United States and included one of the jet’s canopies, which covers the cockpit and contains stealth technology, according to Politico. Instead, the parts for the Lockheed Martin-manufactured plane ended up in Hong Kong, and it’s unclear why or where those parts are now.The Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office told the Washington Examiner it was “aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components,” and said the office is working with U.S. authorities and industry partners “to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence.” A House Armed Services Committee staffer confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the committee is “aware” of the incident.“We’ve received multiple briefings and are continuing to look into the incident,” the staffer said.The F-35A’s canopy involves an acrylic bubble with a thin layer of transparent radar-absorbent material that coats the exterior and helps keep the aircraft obscured from enemy radar. Over time, that layer can degrade, peel, and separate, requiring replacement to ensure fully mission-capable stealth.Approximately 20 countries have F-35 aircraft, including the U.S., Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.China, for its part, has frequently sought inside information on secret Pentagon programs, including the F-35.“Possibly losing a canopy in shipment is concerning,” the director in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s Defense Capabilities and Management team told the Washington Examiner. “Possibly losing a canopy in Hong Kong (and thus the [People’s Liberation Army]) is even more concerning.”BREAKING DOWN THE MILITARY’S NEARLY $40 BILLION IRAN WAR“A canopy eventually ending up in an engineering lab in China is a much bigger problem,” she said, not confirming that this occurred but speculating on the possibility. “But if it did, it’s not good. The canopy has a lot of sensitive technology. If the Chinese nabbed one, they probably celebrated and then got busy learning as much as they could to reverse engineer components and figure out how to overcome components.”A 2023 GAO report found that over a five-year period, one F-35 prime contractor lost more than 1 million spare parts that cost more than $85 million. It noted that the Pentagon is expected to spend $1.7 trillion over the F-35 Lightning II aircraft’s program life cycle.