Snowden doc leak ‘confirms’ China stole F-35 data

China now knows what most people in the west are catching up with: that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a lemon.

The latest round of managed information release by Edward Snowden via Spiegel includes the snippet that Chinese security services copied “terabytes” of data about the aircraft.

The release states that the compromised information includes radar systems data, engine schematics, heat contour maps, and designs to cool exhaust gases. The latest leak confirms the scale of the data theft, which emerged in US media such as The Washington Times March 2014.