F-35 parts shipped from Australia to the US diverted to Hong Kong and still missing months later

Fighter jet components manufactured in Australia and bound for the United States were diverted to Hong Kong and remain unaccounted for months later, according to Australia's acting prime minister, Richard Marles.

Marles said Australia's Defence Department is reviewing "everything that has occurred at the Australian end" but claimed the parts were not sensitive. Politico reported that the shipment included one of the jet's canopies, which it said contains stealth technology. A third party transporting the parts on behalf of manufacturer Lockheed Martin routed them through Hong Kong — a Chinese special administrative region — for reasons nobody has publicly explained.

The US Department of War and the F-35 Joint Program Office confirmed they are working with industry partners to retrieve the components.

Michael Shoebridge, a former intelligence official who now directs Strategic Analysis Australia, said an adversary could use the parts to reverse-engineer the aircraft or learn how to exploit its vulnerabilities. He said every country operating the F-35 now carries the risk of whatever was exposed.