China Reportedly Nabs Sensitive F-35 Parts

A shipment of high-tech F-35 fighter jet parts somehow ended up in Hong Kong, and Beijing reportedly has them now. Bloomberg reports that UPS was transporting a cockpit canopy and weapons bay door from Australia to the US in late May when the cargo was unexpectedly rerouted to Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. The incident triggered a congressional inquiry, Politico reports, given that the parts come from the United States' most advanced fighter jet and are coated with radar-absorbing material that boosts stealth.

The mishap lands amid long-running concerns about Chinese efforts to obtain F-35-related technology. The Hong Kong government declined to comment and China's Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of the incident, per the AP. The F-35 Joint Program Office says it's working with authorities to retrieve the components and "place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence." Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles says Canberra is working with Washington and Lockheed Martin to figure out what happened, but insists no "sensitive parts" were involved. The parts were expected to undergo "repair or disposal" in the US, per the AP.