According to plan, batch of defective parts and elements from F-35 fighters was to be sent from Australia to U.S. by UPS postal service aircraft, where they would be repaired or disposed of. However, after aircraft landed in South Korea, from where it was supposed to fly to U.S., it intentionally or accidentally flew to china's Special Administrative Region — Hong Kong.
Exact list of parts sent on that flight is currently not disclosed. However known is that among them were cockpit canopies, as well as internal weapons bay doors for F-35. Bloomberg writes about this, citing anonymous sources familiar with matter.
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Importantly, batch of defective parts did not simply pass through china — some of them remained there, specifically cockpit canopies and weapons bay doors. Meaning Chinese intelligence services could seize parts of F-35 fighter elements, enabling them to study these in detail.
And this is genuinely big problem for U.S., as well as other countries having F-35 aircraft in service. If Chinese intelligence services indeed managed to seize F-35 cockpit canopy and weapons bay doors, this enables them to study in detail radar-absorbing materials covering them.
Composition, structure and manufacturing technology of such materials are usually kept in strict secrecy. And here into china's hands may have fallen samples of these materials directly with aircraft body elements, enabling conducting their detailed technical analysis and finding effective solutions for countering these materials, threatening F-35's stealth capabilities.
Besides this, this may enable Chinese engineers to copy advanced American radar-absorbing materials for further use in their own stealth fighters and other aircraft using stealth technologies in their design.
Therefore this error with sending F-35 parts and elements through Hong Kong is genuine gift for china, which even without this enjoys copying ready effective foreign solutions.
Currently official U.S. and Australian investigations regarding this incident are ongoing. In turn, china is not yet commenting on this situation. Therefore for now one must await additional details and investigation results.
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