A shipment of F-35 spare parts moved through Hong Kong and ended up in China after a UPS employee missed ITAR routing instructions, turning US-China F-35 technology into a logistics failure with export-control consequences. The Pentagon has now told Congress how the route broke down and said it is working to pull the components back.
Pentagon briefing on Sept. 29
Pentagon officials laid out new details in an approximately hour-long Sept. 29 briefing with staff from the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees. Erica Plath, the Pentagon deputy assistant secretary responsible for defense logistics, said she has assembled a team taking steps to prevent a repeat. The Defense Department described the parts as “unserviceable.”
The shipment began in Australia and was meant to travel to San Francisco through South Korea and Taiwan. Instead, it was diverted through Hong Kong. DSV, acting for Lockheed Martin Corp., alerted handlers that the box contained an F-35 cockpit canopy and a weapons-bay door, both treated with radar-absorbing material.
Lockheed and UPS roles
Lockheed manages a large share of the global spare-parts pool that keeps F-35s flying for the US and 19 other countries. After initially disclosed the missing parts last month, Lockheed said “our logistics decisions are not made unilaterally” and said it picks carriers that align with government rules. Lockheed also said it was working closely with its logistics partner to develop and implement preventive measures to strengthen collective oversight and prevent recurrence.
On Wednesday, Lockheed said it had “nothing to add or correct on the series of events you mentioned.” UPS spokesman Malcolm Berkley was among the named company officials tied to the case, and DSV spokesman Stephan Ghisler-Solvang was identified on the logistics side. The shipping error centered on an employee at United Parcel Service Inc. who failed to heed instructions banning passage through specific countries under the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR.
US safeguards and retrieval
The Pentagon said, “We are actively working with U.S. authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence.” US Transportation Command said “it was not involved in the transportation or coordination of the shipment in question.” A compliance officer from the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls attended the congressional session, underscoring how export-control oversight now sits alongside the retrieval effort.
The unresolved issue is how the ITAR warning failed to stop the UPS employee who processed the box. Until that is answered, the case remains a test of whether the F-35 spare-parts system can keep sensitive hardware on route when a single missed instruction can send it through Hong Kong and into Chinese hands.
