The Australian Ministry of Defense confirmed that many F-35 stealth fighter components were lost, but emphasized that there was no sensitive equipment in them.
“We are carefully reviewing every step that has been taken on the Australian side. This incident does not involve any sensitive components or elements,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said today, referring to the incident where a batch of F-35 fighter equipment was suddenly shipped to Hong Kong in the summer.
Mr. Marles added that Australia is opening an investigation and will coordinate with US officials, as well as manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
American F-35 fighter at the Paris Air Show in France in 2023. Photo: Reuters
Newspaper Politico of the US last weekend, citing three sources familiar with the matter, said the incident occurred when an intermediary unit was entrusted by Lockheed Martin to transport a batch of F-35 fighter equipment from Australia to the US for repair. It is unclear whose hands the above components are currently in and why they were diverted.
According to two sources, the shipment contained a cockpit glass panel containing stealth technology that only the US and its allies have access to. The F-35 cockpit glass is made of acrylic plastic, covered with thin and transparent radar wave-absorbing material, considered an important part of the aircraft’s radar-evading ability.
The incident caused the US State Department and the Pentagon to hold a series of meetings since early June, to report the situation to key national security committees in Congress. More meetings are expected in the coming weeks, according to sources.
The Pentagon confirmed that some components “disappeared”, but did not specify what they were. The F-35 Program Management Office (JPO) of the US Department of Defense announced that it was aware of a problem occurring during the transportation of “unusable components” of F-35 fighters.
Australia is operating 72 F-35 fighters and is one of 7 countries outside the US that has the program’s global spare parts warehouse, besides Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK.
A warehouse at Williamtown, north of Sydney, is used as an F-35 parts distribution center in Asia-Pacific, serving the forces of Singapore, Japan and South Korea, as well as US and UK aircraft deployed in the region.
Inside the F-35 fighter assembly factory in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Image: Lockheed Martin
The Australian Parliament in 2025 was informed that Lockheed Martin transported F-35 components from this warehouse to other parts of the world by commercial aircraft, some of which made stops in Asia. Australian defense officials at that time emphasized that Canberra did not control or direct the process of exporting components from the warehouse.
Lockheed Martin’s branch in Australia has not announced the shipping process for F-35 components because of information security principles, but affirms that all shipments are handled with “extreme care” and comply with US regulations.
Michael Shoebridge, an expert who has worked in Australian intelligence agencies, said that if they grasp parts such as cockpit glass, US opponents can research to determine stealth characteristics and exploit weaknesses on the F-35, and even apply reverse engineering to apply technology to domestic products.
Shoebridge warned that the lost shipment in Hong Kong threatened the entire F-35 program. “Every F-35 owner faces risks from this incident. This is no longer just an issue for the US and Australia. F-35 operating partners all want to understand what happened and whether any technology was exposed,” he said.