Defense News: China can access data from F-35 fighter jet via UAE
The use of telecommunications equipment of the 5G standard of the Chinese company Huawei in the event of the UAE acquiring fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters will provide Beijing with an opportunity to get a lot of information about how the US aircraft works, Emily Harding, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Defense News.
According to him, Abu Dhabi's statements that Huawei technologies will not affect the F-35 Lightning II are overly optimistic, since there is a great relationship between the commercial and military sectors.
Andreas Craig, a lecturer at King's College London, added that the concerns are not caused by data transmitted over networks, but by information that may leak from servers. "All data, second by second, will be available and uploaded from the aircraft to servers operated by Chinese companies or Chinese technologies, or will be stored at facilities to which Chinese companies will have access," the expert said.
Defense News recalls that in December 2021, the UAE suspended negotiations on the purchase of the F-35 Lightning II due to American demands regarding Huawei.
In January, 19FortyFive wrote that the F-35 Lightning II "continues to make history" and "scares Russia."
In the same month, Defense News acknowledged that the F-35 Lightning II produced by the American company Lockheed Martin as a possible candidate to replace the German Tornado aircraft could threaten the joint program of France, Germany and Spain to create a new generation European fighter Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
