Ex-General Says Saudis Unlikely To Leak F-35 Tech, But China ‘Could Exploit Through Intel’
China’s aggressive campaign to steal American military technology is emerging as a central concern in the debate over whether the United States should sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, according to experts and retired senior military commanders.
(Ret.) Gen. Charles Wald, a former U.S. Air Force officer and former deputy commander of EUCOM, said the United States had already rejected the United Arab Emirates and Turkey due to concerns about Chinese technology exploitation.
“We told Turkey they’re not going to get the F-35. We told the UAE they’re not going to get it because there’s concern that there could be a transfer of technology to China,” Wald said. “That would probably be the biggest issue with Saudi Arabia getting the F-35 … Not because they would give it to the Chinese. Because the Chinese could exploit through intel, getting capability off that, but I’m not as worried as some,” Wald said during a briefing at JINSA this week.
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(Ret.) Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the United States uses foreign military sales monitoring protocols to reduce risk, but the protections are not perfect.
“One of the things that we do through foreign military sales is end-use case monitoring protocol,” Ashley said. “We watch very closely how these kinds of advanced systems are used … but they’re not absolute,” he told journalists during the JINSA briefing.
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Wald emphasized that Israeli pilots, planners, and engineers maintain a superior level of training and innovation. “There’s a big difference between the Israeli actual pilot capability than the other countries out there,” Wald said. He added that Israel has integrated its own upgrades into the aircraft. “The Israelis modified their own F-35 a little bit … they created or developed [additional capabilities] just prior to the attack on Iran.”
Wald noted that even if approved, Riyadh would not receive the aircraft for years. “At the very least, there’s probably about a five-year window here before that would happen if they got the F-35,” he said.
Ashley and Wald said that in the long term, additional F-35s in the region could enhance shared situational awareness and strengthen collective defenses against Iran. Retired Vice Adm. Mark Fox said the fighter’s data-sharing architecture means more aircraft in allied hands improves overall performance. “The one thing about F-35 is it talks to every other F-35,” Fox said. “Having more F-35s in the region actually increases the capability of the coalition.”
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