I thought was an interesting article and even more interesting analysis. For sure, this doesn't give US allies in east Asia a warm fuzzy.
China Finds Fastest Way to Develop a Stealth Fighter: Steal it.
Article from Lignet.com
Summary
CYBER WAR
Seven years ago, stealth technology allowed the U.S. Air Force to dominate all comers while Chinese pilots often refused to fly at night or in bad weather. Today, a next-generation Chinese stealth fighter jet to rival America's best is undergoing flight tests. In a few years, Chinese fighter-bombers invisible to radar will dominate the skies of East Asia.
China has gained that ground not by hard-earned feats of engineering but by stealing secrets through cyber-espionage. The Pentagon recently admitted that Chinese cyber spies in 2007 stole classified design data from the new F-35 Lightning II, pilfered plans that Beijing then transferred to its own stealth fighter program.
Background
China conducted a major cyber-spying operation on the United States and its allies in 2007 to steal secrets from the F-35 Lightning II program, Washington Free Beacon Senior Editor Bill Gertz reported last week. The stolen information bounced around various Chinese military agencies and defense firms and became integrated into the Chengdu J-20, the People’s Liberation Army fifth-generation jet fighter.
The pilfered technology has contributed substantially to the current J-20 design, according to Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center. The Chinese stealth airplane went swiftly from a demo version in 2011 to a flying prototype in several phases over the past two years.
The Chinese Communist Party announced on Jan. 20 that the J-20’s technological innovations were derived from the F-35. The Pentagon Defense Science Board confirmed the cyber theft, according to the Free Beacon.
The J-20’s capabilities caught up to the F-35 with astonishing speed. The J-20 now mounts the latest electro-optical targeting system under its nose, similar to the F-35’s configuration, which gives Chinese pilots a better field of view. The J-20 has enhanced features on its tail and vertical fin to reduce its radar signature. The newer twin engines provide better thrust and speed. The J-20 also has a larger weapons payload than the F-35 that allows it to carry heavy anti-ship missiles.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been delayed for years and is now 70 percent over budget, according to a report released this month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). At a lifecycle cost of $400 billion, the F-35 is the “most costly and ambitious acquisition program ever,” the GAO report said.
The Marine Corps is expecting delivery of the fighter by July 2015, but the Air Force and Navy won’t get it until 2016 and 2018.
It is not clear how the Chinese stole the data in 2007. The breach could have come from Lockheed Martin, one of its many suppliers or from one of the U.S. allies who have ordered the Joint Strike Fighter.
In another F-35 embarrassment for the Pentagon, Reuters reported in January that two of the fighter’s subcontractors, Northrop Grumman and Honeywell International, used magnets made in China for the plane’s radar, landing gear and other systems. U.S. law prohibits parts made with specialty metals from other countries to be used in military hardware. Since the magnets reportedly cost only $2 each, the F-35 program was granted a waiver from the law that allowed it to avoid another delay and keep it “on track,” according to Reuters.
In March, Reuters reported that “raw materials such as titanium from China” were used in the new Raytheon Standard Missile-3 IIA ballistic missile interceptor. The GAO said Chinese magnets were also used in some F-16 fighters and in Boeing’s B-1B bomber.
Analysis
The loss of secret F-35 technology and apparent shortcuts U.S. defense contractors took with Chinese materials are equally unfortunate developments. The GAO report portrays Pentagon acquisition officials as cavalier about the Chinese components built into the F-35, F-16 and B-1B.
It would take about $11 million and 25,000 man-hours to remove these magnets from the F-35s and replace them with American-made parts, so the Pentagon is shrugging its shoulders even as it insists it will avoid using Chinese parts in the future.
The remedy for this is simple: Enforce compliance with the law. Regulations requiring American-made aerospace components for U.S. weapons have been on the books since 1973. This covers all parts, ranging from large panels to the smallest bolts and fasteners. Another 2006 law bans specialty metals such as titanium that are purchased overseas. The Pentagon, to its credit, is investigating whether contractors “willfully and knowingly” violated statutes to obtain Chinese raw materials for the three airplanes in question.
However, this does not mitigate the risk of using parts made with foreign components. The F-35’s airframe or other key pieces could fail. The request that these parts be granted waivers rings hollow when one considers the dangers defective moving parts could pose in a fighter plane.
Cyber theft is another security disappointment for the U.S. military. The Chinese stole billions of dollars and years of painstaking research from the F-35 program. It is too late to reverse the damage, but it is still beneficial to examine what might have caused the breach, in order to prevent future espionage losses.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that a shadowy Chinese military organization in Chengdu province called the Technical Reconnaissance Bureau was behind the hacking. This unit likely operates under the umbrella of the PLA’s Integrated Network Electronic Warfare.
The Chinese probably used a virus or worm to take control of computer operating systems used for the F-35 program. These Trojans can be inserted into a network, server, or device to hijack a single work station or thousands of personal computers in a network. Attacks of this nature can be as simple as a “spear-phishing” email with an infected link that takes control of a hard drive.
One likely scenario would be a “watering hole” attack. This happens when a user goes to an independent website outside of the firm’s server (the watering hole) that is infected by malicious code. Once the browser links to the website, the malware infects that user’s computer and can steal classified F-35 files stored on a hard drive. A “bot” then sends those secrets to a Chinese computer owned by the cyber spies.
The Chinese are known for using this intrusion to great effect. Any employee working on the F-35 program from a government or a private firm’s computer could have been the victim of a watering hole attack and unknowingly leaked a treasure trove of technical design documents to the Chinese.
One thing defense firms or government agencies can do is to encourage their employees to visit only approved websites on the company intranet to avoid crossing over the firewall to browse sites that may have malware.
Of course, how the Chinese stole F-35 secrets is now water under the bridge. The United States faces the depressing reality of not having the same type of air superiority it once enjoyed with the advent of its stealth fighter jets such as the F-117 Nighthawk and the F-22 Raptor.
Parity in the skies between an American stealth jet and a similar Chinese airplane can be overcome by superior pilots using better tactics and maneuvers. But if the J-20 is as good as intelligence analysts think it is, then China enjoys a strategic air advantage over its neighbors -- a worrisome security development in the Far East.
A mass-produced, stealthy fighter-bomber would enable the Chinese air force to evade enemy radar, attack an adversary and eliminate their command and control nodes, anti-aircraft missile sites and radar installations. This would allow China to make a larger follow-on attack from the air that could be devastating – in large part because of the cyber espionage that took place seven years ago.
