UPS Worker Missed Email, Letting China Get F-35 Parts

Takeaways by Bloomberg AI

China managed to get a hold of parts from an F-35 stealth fighter jet after a United Parcel Service Inc. employee missed an email warning not to route the shipment through Hong Kong, according to a person briefed on the incident.

The email from freight forwarder firm DSV A/S said that the parts — an F-35 cockpit canopy and weapons-bay door coated in radar-absorbing material — must not transit through certain countries to comply with the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The rules, known as ITAR, are meant in part to keep sensitive US weapons technology from falling into the hands of US adversaries.