People briefed on the matter told Bloomberg that parts for the F-35 were diverted to Hong Kong on a United Parcel Service Inc. flight and then taken by the Chinese government while en route from Australia to the United States. The items were a cockpit canopy and a weapons-bay door from an Australian F-35, each treated with radar-absorbing material to preserve stealth performance. Those parts were sent in late May so they could be examined in the US and then either fixed or scrapped.
Reports of the diversion and seizure surfaced while President Donald Trump was hosting Xi Jinping during a state visit in Washington. In a separate event, on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, an Air Force F-35A participated in the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK town of Farnborough.
Cotton, the Republican who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, wrote to Hegseth that the Pentagon "relies extensively on contractors and commercial carriers to move military equipment, replacement parts, and vital supplies around the world," but that those "contractor-managed supply chains" now merit a hard look given national security risks. He warned, "We can't afford for US military equipment to fall into the hands of a foreign adversary because of vulnerabilities in commercial transportation," and added, "Classified and designated sensitive components should receive heightened protections, but all U.S. military material can provide adversaries valuable insight into U.S. weapons systems, logistics, and readiness."
His letter asked for a review of chain-of-custody requirements when military items ship commercially and an assessment of the Pentagon's ability to track routing and location in transit. Cotton additionally requested an evaluation of the standards for permitting gear to move via foreign jurisdictions, along with protections to ensure military materiel neither transits via nor gets redirected to China and other areas under adversary control.
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Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's top Democrat, requested a Pentagon briefing on the episode last week.
The F-35 from Lockheed Martin Corp. is widely regarded as the most advanced fighter jet and is also the priciest US defense program on record. In a statement, Lockheed said "our logistics decisions are not made unilaterally" because the US government "designates the approved transportation options and we select the carrier that best aligns with those government-mandated parameters." UPS has repeatedly declined to comment.
Commercial shipping is deeply woven into defense logistics, and Washington is now scrutinizing how that works when sensitive hardware is involved. If the Pentagon tightens rules on routing, custody, or acceptable carriers, contractors and freight operators could see processes change and costs move. Keep an eye on any Pentagon updates or Lockheed disclosures about shipping protocols around the F-35 program, since those decisions can ripple into timelines, margins, and who gets the next logistics contract.
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