On Tuesday the missing F-35 Lightning stealth fighter was found in Williamsburg County, South Carolina. The debris field was located approximately 80 miles from Joint Base Charleston. On Sunday, the pilot ejected safely into a North Charleston neighborhood while the jet was on autopilot, but no reason has been given for the ejection. The incident has been labeled as a “Class-A mishap” by the Marine Corps. The Daily Mail cited the Project On Government Oversight’s 2019 report showing that “nearly every software-enabled weapon system tested between 2012 and 2017 can be hacked – including the F-35.” The report also showed in previous years through cybersecurity testing “that many previously confirmed F-35 vulnerabilities have not been fixed, meaning that enemy hackers could potentially shut down the ALIS network, steal secret data from the network and onboard computers, and perhaps prevent the F-35 from flying or from accomplishing its missions.” The “mishap” raises concerns about the multi-trillion dollar F-35 program being compromised by a cyberattack.
