WASHINGTON – All of the more than 825 F-35 fighter jets delivered to date have been made from a Chinese alloy banned by both U.S. law and Pentagon regulations, according to the program office that oversees aircraft. contains the components specified.
According to the US Department of Defense’s F-35 Program Office, the component is a magnet used in the aircraft’s power unit supplied by Honeywell International and has been on the aircraft since 2003.
on wednesday, Pentagon suspends deliveries of new F-35 Make sure your program complies with regulations related to “special metals”.
The F-35 program, which could number more than 3,300 jets, is asking the Pentagon’s chief procurement officer for a national security exemption to resume deliveries of new aircraft already assembled, including alloys. wax.
The program office does not expect to “replace magnets in delivered aircraft,” he said.
Replacing them could require costly and time-consuming retrofitting of more than 500 U.S. training and operational aircraft.
The Pentagon and aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin have found a U.S. source of alloys for future planes, the company said.
“Further investigations are underway to understand the cause of the violation and establish remedial action,” Goemaere said.
US law and Department of Defense procurement regulations prohibit the use of special metals or alloys made in China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia. The Defense Contract Management Agency reported the violation to his F-35 Program Office on Aug. 19.
A decade ago, the Pentagon waived Honeywell’s right to use Chinese magnets in other parts of the F-35, saying the program was already plagued with delays and cost overruns and would have been delayed further.
This part has no technical flaws and does not pose a security risk to America’s top stealth fighter or its 8 million lines of software code.
Rather, it is a supply chain security issue and the reason why the banned alloy was not detected by Honeywell.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/f-35-jets-all-contain-china-made-alloy-banned-by-law-us-pentagon-says All F-35 jets contain Chinese-made alloys banned by law, Pentagon says