<\/p>\n
Among the details quietly scrubbed from Lockheed Martin\u2019s website are that Australian businesses are supplying components \u2018for the entire F-35 fleet\u2019 and that, \u2018Every F-35 built contains some Australian parts and components\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n The material was included in the section \u2018Industrial Partnerships\u2019, which was deleted entirely between March 15 and April 7 this year.<\/span><\/p>\n Around that time, Lockheed Martin and the Albanese Government were under heavy scrutiny following a February Senate hearing in which the supply of \u2018weapons\u2019 to Israel was hotly contested, specifically F-35 parts and components.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The deleted \u2018Industrial Partnerships\u2019 section of the Lockheed Martin site states: \u2018As a programme partner, Australian businesses are supplying components for the entire F-35 fleet, not just Australian aircraft.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n It continues: \u2018In total, more than 70 Australian companies have been awarded export contracts valued at AU$4.13 billion.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Web archive Wayback Machine, which sporadically screenshots webpages, shows the \u2018Industrial Partnerships\u2019 section was on Lockheed Martin\u2019s site until March 15<\/a><\/span>, but had been deleted by April 7<\/span><\/a>, the next time it screenshot the page.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also deleted from the site is a profile of Melbourne F-35 parts manufacturer Marand Precision Engineering, which supplies the F-35 \u2018global fleet\u2019 with an \u2018engine removal and installation mobility trailer\u2019 comprised of \u2018around 12,000 individual parts\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n The Marand article was on the Lockheed site when the Wayback Machine took a screenshot of the page on March 28, but it had been deleted by the time of the next screenshot taken on May 9.<\/span><\/p>\n Lockheed Martin\u2019s Australian F-35 page<\/a><\/span> now contains only<\/span><\/a> information relating to the Australian Defence Force\u2019s F-35 program.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On March 25<\/span><\/a>, Greens Senator David Shoebridge tried (and failed) to move a motion in the Senate that accused the Federal Government of being \u2018content to send weapons and weapons parts to Israel to literally fuel the genocide\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n On February 14, participating in a Senate committee<\/span><\/a>, Shoebridge asked Hugh Jeffrey, a Department of Defence deputy secretary: \u2018Do you consider parts of an F-35 fighter jet, such as the parts manufactured in Australia and used on Israeli Defence Force fighter jets to open the bomb bay doors, to be weapons?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Jeffrey responded: \u2018A pencil is used for writing. It\u2019s not designed in and of itself to be a weapon, but it can be, if you want to use it as a weapon.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Shoebridge said: \u2018Bomb bay doors are generally used to release bombs.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Jeffrey said that under the UN definition, \u2018weapons are defined as whole systems\u2019, such as \u2018armoured vehicles\u2019, \u2018tanks\u2019 and \u2018combat helicopters\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n The Albanese government has repeatedly said that no \u2018weapons\u2019 have been sent to Israel for at least the past five years.<\/span><\/p>\n Focusing on the word \u2018weapons\u2019 enables the government to ignore exports of \u2018ammunition\/munitions\u2019 and \u2018parts and components\u2019, all of which are covered by the 2014 Arms Trade Treaty<\/span><\/a>, which Australia championed at the United Nations and ratified in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n The Albanese government is coming under increasing pressure, with concerns mounting that Australia will be found to be complicit in genocide<\/span><\/a> because it has not ceased military exports to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n More than 800 public servants<\/span><\/a> last week released a signed open letter calling on the government to immediately stop all military exports to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n The Department of Defence has admitted it approved two new export permits to Israel after the October 7 attack.<\/span><\/p>\n In a Senate estimates hearing<\/span><\/a> on February 14, the Defence Department\u2018s Hugh Jeffrey said: \u2018Two export permits have been granted since the time of the last estimates\u2019, the date of which was 25 October 2023<\/span><\/a>. The permits were approved between October 25 and October 31. Mr Jeffrey refused to say what items the new permits covered.<\/span><\/p>\n The Defence Department and DFAT have also refused to answer questions about whether approved military export permits that were in place before the Hamas attacks have been suspended.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n More than 70 Australian companies<\/a><\/span> supply parts and components into the global supply chain of the F-35.<\/span><\/p>\n Several of the companies are the sole source of the parts they produce. Without them, new F-35 jets cannot be built, nor can parts be replaced.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n – Insert –<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In December last year a US Congressional hearing<\/span><\/a> revealed that the F-35 joint program office had been moving \u2018at a breakneck speed to support \u2026 Israel \u2026 by increasing spare part supply rates\u2019. (Emphasis added.)<\/span><\/p>\n On October 30, the Defence Department issued a media release<\/span><\/a> trumpeting the important role played by Australian industry in the production and maintenance of the global F-35 fleet. <\/span><\/p>\n The release announced that Melbourne company Rosebank Engineering had established an important repair depot under the F-35 global support solution for aircraft operating in or deployed to the Indo-Pacific region. Rosebank Engineering and the Defence Department had partnered with the US F-35 joint program office and Lockheed Martin to establish the new facility.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rosebank has been part of the F-35 supply chain since 2004 and now manufactures more than 150 components<\/span><\/a> for the landing gear and weapons bay systems on the F-35, including the components that enable the bombs to be dropped on Gaza. Rosebank (formerly RUAG Australia) is the sole source global supplier<\/span><\/a> of the F-35\u2019s \u2018uplock actuators\u2019 that open and close the F-35\u2019s weapons bay doors.<\/span><\/p>\n Sydney-based Quickstep Holdings is another long-term supplier to the F-35 program. In December 2020, it announced<\/a><\/span> it had produced its 10,000th component \u2013 just 20% of its commitment to the program. Quickstep manufactures more than 50 components and assemblies, worth about $440,000 in each F-35, it says.<\/span><\/p>\n Lockheed Martin also acknowledged<\/span><\/a> Queensland\u2019s Ferra Engineering in providing products for the F-35 since 2004 and said it remained a vital partner.<\/span><\/p>\n Rosebank Engineering, Quickstep Holdings and Ferra Engineering have all supplied parts and components into the F-35\u2019s supply chain during the past five years.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michelle Fahy<\/span> This article was first published at The Klaxon<\/span><\/a> on 05.06.2024<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Australia and the F-35 supply chain: in lockstep with Lockheed<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Hiding Australia\u2019s Complicity: Shoebridge on Wong\u2019s Trumpian Denial of Weapons Export Probing<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world\u2019s biggest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, has deleted from its website details about Australia\u2019s key role in building F-35 fighter jets, which Israel is using to bomb Gaza Among the details quietly scrubbed from Lockheed Martin\u2019s website are that Australian businesses are supplying components \u2018for the entire F-35 fleet\u2019 and that, \u2018Every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[617,135,301,113,645,145,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aukus","category-australias-move-to-the-right","category-corruption","category-foreign-policy","category-gaza-genocide","category-military","category-political-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/F-35s.webp?resize=1080%2C503&ssl=1\")
F-35 fighter jets. Image: Lockheed Martin<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018Every F-35 built contains some Australian parts and components\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Deleted-info.webp?resize=1080%2C513&ssl=1\")
Deleted from Lockheed Martin\u2019s website, the key F-35 role of Melbourne\u2019s Marand Precision Engineering. Image:<\/span> Wayback Machine<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/F-35-trailer.png?resize=1080%2C859&ssl=1\")
Deleted from Lockheed Martin\u2019s website, the key F-35 role of Melbourne\u2019s Marand Precision Engineering. Image: <\/span>Wayback Machine<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\nAustralia\u2019s key role in the F-35 fighter jet program<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Australian-manufacturing-F35-parts.jpg?resize=943%2C654&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nMore than 70 Australian companies supply parts and components into the global supply chain of the F-35<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\nJun 07, 2024<\/span><\/p>\nRelated<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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\nMilitarised Brisbane: weapons manufacturers, university partnerships and grass-roots activism \u2013 Miriam Deprez<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n