Revelations of secret F-35 fighter jet parts shipments to Israel have exposed a yawning hole in Australia’s sovereign national defence.

Exclusive reports by Declassified Australia of at least 71 packages of F-35 fighter jet weapons parts being exported from Sydney to Israel have revealed that Australia has forfeited control over the plane’s spare parts stored here for Australia’s fleet of F-35s.

Australia has signed up to a system where, at a moment’s notice, those ‘parts and components’ may be whisked off the shelves at the RAAF Williamtown Air Base in New South Wales on the whim of a foreign state to be exported to a foreign country in a distant war zone.

“What you’re probably talking about is items that Lockheed Martin imported into Australia to support the maintenance and sustainment of our fleet and then needed to move around to someone else. They are entitled to do that under the F-35 global supply chain mechanism.”

While it may be known to defence experts and insiders, this was the surprise public admission by a senior Defence official, Deputy Secretary Hugh Jeffrey. He was  responding to questions about the F-35 parts exports, that had been  earlier  revealed by reports in Declassified Australia, during a Senate interrogation by Greens Senator David Shoebridge last month:

“These are US owned goods. They’re managed by Lockheed Martin. Australia does not direct the export of those goods. It does not control the export of those goods. If it’s resident in Australia, it needs to issue a permit for those goods to be moved offshore.”

Put simply, if the United States, or its defence contractor Lockheed Martin, want to allocate Australia’s F-35 spare parts inventory away from Australia’s defence to a war elsewhere, it can. And it does. We have the receipts.

The ‘lethality’ of these parts has just been confirmed in a newly leaked shipping document seen by Declassified Australia revealing the latest shipment of a part for the 25mm cannon on the F-35 fighter jet which was transferred from Australia to Israel packed on a commercial passenger flight last week.

The risk to Australia’s F-35 spare parts inventory

At any time, to further its own national interest, the United States may take possession of essential spare parts and components stored in Australia for the RAAFs fleet of 72 F-35s.

In peacetime, this could be inconvenient. In a time of conflict, taking essential parts could mean the effective grounding of numbers of Australian F-35s.

The seriousness of this lack of sovereign control of Australia’s essential defence cannot........

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