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'Spy' F-35s send sensitive Norwegian military data back to the United States

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The marketing campaign makes it clear: The F-35 justifies its enormous cost and limited weapons load by being sneaky and enormously well informed.

 

Spoiler

But its international customers probably didn’t expect this.

 

Norwegian defence officials have caught one of their new $A120 million (less research and development costs) F-35A Lightning II Block 3F stealth jets sending sensitive data back to its US manufacturer — Lockheed Martin.

 

Norway is the first non-US user of the F-35 to have a mission-critical software package enabled through the provision of Mission Data Files.

 

It’s a critical database and software package that is supposed to finally deliver what the advertising videos have been promising for more than a decade: ‘revolutionary situational awareness’.

 

But it appears that ‘situational awareness’ cuts both ways.

 

Turns out the US military megacorp is getting detailed telemetry on everything Norwegian pilots are doing delivered to its Fort Worth, Texas, facility.

 

DOUBLE AGENT

 

Norway has ordered 40 of the jets, with an option for a further 12.

 

It took delivery of its first three aircraft in November.

 

It’s already discovered a problem understood by most smartphone users:

 

“The development from F-16 to F-35 is like comparing an old Nokia 3210 with an iPhone X. As the amount of features increases, data is also increasing and the need to protect it,” Norwegian Defense Ministry consultant Lars Gjemble told ABC Nyheter.

 

“In a way, it looks like the challenge of what information your iPhone shares with the manufacturers.”

 

Put simply, the manufacturer is tracking and assessing the habits of Norwegian pilots.

 

While privacy is a concern when it comes to personal internet and smartphone use, it’s becomes a whole different matter when applied to the military.

 

“Due to national considerations, there is a need for a filter where the user nations can exclude sensitive data from the data stream that is shared by the system with the manufacturer Lockheed Martin,” Gjemble told ABC Nyheter.

 

INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

 

At the heart of the problem is the F-35’s artificial intelligence dubbed ALIS: it is responsible for logging performance data, as well as monitoring and optimising the aircraft’s sophisticated equipment.

 

To do so it ‘phones home’ to Texas.

 

Norway says it has become impatient with continued delays in the promised provision of a data “filter” by Lockheed Martin. So it’s started its own project to find ways to block its new F-35s from reporting back to their former US masters.

 

It’s also worried that it won’t be able to optimise — or protect — the extremely sensitive Mission Data Files. These data packs optimise aircraft performance under different conditions, as well as provide a database of regional challenges and conditions.

 

Again, Norway wants Lockheed Martin out of the loop.

 

“Norway has entered into a partnership with Italy to jointly finance the procurement and operation of a laboratory where we can enter nationally sensitive data, as we currently do on F-16,” Gjemble said.

 

Australia took delivery of its first two F-35s earlier this year. It has about 70 of the aircraft - which represent the world’s most expensive conventional weapons program ever - on order.

 

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Tiddy-bits:

I'm going to call bullshit on this for a few reasons I'm not going to disclose, but until they detail the method of how it's being transmitted, it's simply not possible with the F-35 unless they've modified it and purposely let it connect to open network infrastructure. That would be their own fault and I highly doubt Lockheed is just remoting into F-35s around the globe, on a non-sensitive network. That would be a massive security risk and Lockheed would be penalized for it, both internally with DoD and from the US Govt.' I also like how the author tries to compare the F-35 with a smartphone. They are nothing alike in any aspect.

 

In short, proof or gtfo.

 

Edit: Also, on their 'ALIS is AI' spiel:

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/ALIS.html

 

This is off of publicly available information, so there may be a lot deeper of an explanation for these that are in documents not authorized for public release.

Quote

ALIS integrates a broad range of capabilities including operations, maintenance, prognostics, supply chain, customer support services, training and technical data. A single, secure information environment provides users with up-to-date information on any of these areas using web-enabled applications on a distributed network.

ALIS serves as the information infrastructure for the F-35, transmitting aircraft health and maintenance action information to the appropriate users on a globally-distributed network to technicians worldwide.

 

Distributed network being that they would have to be connected to some other kind of network to allow this type of traffic to pass anyway. Whether it be NATO network or some backdoor in their network infrastructure. This kind of traffic would have to be authorized first. It's not AI because it doesn't autonomously deliver these results without some kind of human intervention. Either via a physical connection or something they set up.

 

The ALIS software like a smart-car system where it will tell you that your fluids are low, need maintenance, something mechanical is wrong, etc. It's nothing more than diagnostic information. If it transmitted operation/mission conditions, that would be a huge breach of information. The US Govt has regulations on how classification/sensitivity is separated. The F-35 is tested and accredited for these standards. This is not only logical measures, but physical ones. This means that they (Norwegians) are connecting both the sensitive networks within the aircraft and/or storing sensitive information on their non-sensitive equipment. It's their own damn fault if this is the case. That's like blaming a computer rather than the user for leaking classified data on an unclassified network.

 

There's a lot of assumptions that can be made, but until they release details of how their sensitive information is being leaked, other than the programs working as intended and it not being their (Norwegians) own stupidity for having a shitty information compartmentalization/classification domain policy, it's just this reporter talking out of their ass.
 

Edited by Solaris
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