Missing F-35 canopy parts prompt US and Australian investigations

Unserviceable F-35 components being transported from Australia to the United States were mistakenly routed through Hong Kong, and some of the parts remain unaccounted for. The consignment included a canopy. Investigations have been opened in both countries.

Australia's Defence Minister, Richard Marles, said the missing parts are not sensitive. That assessment invites scrutiny, since a canopy is not a trivial item. It will not expose the secrets of the whole aircraft, and it would not allow anyone to reverse-engineer an F-35. Low Observability comes from an intricate integration of design, materials, sensors, systems and software, and no single component carries that.

Physical access to a genuine part is a different matter. A canopy's radar-absorbent coating and its construction could yield useful intelligence about the jet's low observable technology. The same reasoning applies to other airframe items, such as a weapons bay door.

The investigation is expected to establish whether the diversion was an extraordinary logistics error or something deliberate. Questions about a possible Chinese operation to obtain F-35 hardware are inevitable given where the shipment ended up. No publicly available evidence currently points to such an operation.