At least 68 shipments of F-35 fighter jet parts have been flown on commercial passenger planes to Israel from Australia as recently as last month, leaked documents reveal.

This Declassified Australia investigation is published in partnership with investigative news site, The Ditch.

Detailed shipping records seen by Declassified Australia show the most recent shipment of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel left Sydney two weeks ago destined for Tel Aviv, exported in the cargo bay of a scheduled passenger flight from Sydney International Airport.

Declassified Australia has examined the details of confidential shipping records listing a total of 68 shipments of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft parts flown from Australia directly to Israel between October 2023 and September 2025.

The multiple F-35 parts and components being sent to Israel are bypassing the two main centralised distribution hubs for F-35 parts in the US and the Netherlands by being sent as cargo on commercial passenger flights from Australia to Israel.

The shipping records show that the number of Joint Strike Fighter parts shipments made directly to Israel from Australia spiked immediately after the commencement of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza on the evening of 7 October 2023, with 10 separate shipments being made from Australia to Israel in November 2023 alone.

Of the 68 documented shipments, 51 are marked with the final receiver being at Nevatim with postcode 8955000, located in Israel. This corresponds with the address of Nevatim Airbase, located in Israel’s Negev desert, and the base for the Israeli Air Force’s three F-35 squadrons.

The number of parts exported may be much higher than the 68 shipments detailed. A comparison to opaquely named items on two lists of export approvals  obtained  previously by Declassified Australia show at least another 24 identically named parts were shipped during the same period. This covert trade is now seen as far more extensive than as  first reported in July by Declassified Australia.

The latest part

The latest F-35 aircraft part flown directly to Israel from Australia in mid-September is described in the recently leaked shipping document as an “Inlet Lube Plate” for the JSF, the Joint Strike Fighter.

A search for the needed part in the inventory of the JSF global logistics supply chain apparently found an available spare was located in Williamtown-Australia, the location of Australia’s RAAF fleet of F-35s. It was ordered on 7 September 2025.

The shipping document shows that the package was picked up by courier from Williamtown on 11 September and taken to Sydney, where it was booked on a flight to be exported out of Australia to Israel on 17 September 2025.

The part described as an “Inlet Lube Plate” is labelled in the document as “Military Goods – Aircraft parts”, is marked for use in the “JSF”, and the trading partner is identified as the manufacturer, “Lockheed Martin”.

The inlet lube plate is not likely to be for the jet engine inlets which have no moving parts. It is more likely for the F-35’s Environmental Control System, which has an inlet port visible on the plane’s fuselage above the starboard (right) engine intake. That is part of the plane’s Power and Thermal Management System manufactured by Honeywell Aerospace and responsible for managing the heat produced by the aircraft’s operational systems.

The F-35’s PTMS’s are  manufactured by Honeywell in Arizona in the US, with component parts listed on the company website as “manufactured and maintained” in the UK, Canada, Mexico, France, the Netherlands and Czechia – but not in Australia or Israel.

The part is further described as being “Subject to ITAR”, the US State Department’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations that control the export of weapons and defence items.

Since June 2024, a tightening of  ministerial scrutiny of defence export rules was introduced to alert Defence Minister Richard Marles “to every potential shipment to Israel”. The minister and his department are required to ensure that those items approved for export will not be used in breach of international law. However, just what that scrutiny means is in doubt.

The Defence deputy secretary on 5 June 2024 in response to questioning by Greens Senator David Shoebridge, stated the bizarre official view of the meaning of that obligation.

“I think the question of whether or not the F-35 is being employed in the crisis in Israel is not material to the question of whether or not we grant an export permit.”

The flight

Not a cloud in the sky marred a beautiful sunny spring day in Sydney on a Wednesday in mid-September, but it was a day when terror rained from the sky over Gaza. In bombings by jets and tanks, 61 people were  reported killed in Gaza by Israeli forces on this day, 17 September 2025. It was only on  the day before that a United Nations investigation found “Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide”.

In Sydney on that Wednesday, the package containing the F-35 part was loaded by airport freight handlers into the underbelly cargo hold of the plane docked at Gate 60 at Sydney’s International Airport.

This was no military flight or even a dedicated freight carrier. Flight number TG472 was a normal scheduled Thai Airways passenger flight of an Airbus A350 commercial passenger jet.

None of the potentially 321 passengers on board sipping the Thai Airways complementary wine, nor the busy flight crew, could have any idea that beneath the cabin floor, in the cargo hold of the plane, was a military aircraft spare part destined for Israel that would enable an Israeli F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to rain down death and destruction on the civilians of Gaza, and elsewhere.

The Thai Airways plane lifted off from Sydney’s International Airport a few minutes late at 3.05pm before rising over the glistening blue waters of Botany Bay, making a sweeping starboard turn over the Royal National Park to head north-west across the Australian continent.

Around four hours into the 10-hour first leg to Bangkok, the plane would be detected overhead by the defence air traffic radars of RAAF Base Tindal, ironically the home of Australia’s F-35 fleet, on the outskirts of the town of Katherine, south of the Northern Territory capital, Darwin.

After touchdown in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, the special cargo was off-loaded onto its direct connection to Tel Aviv, another regular scheduled passenger flight, an El Al Israeli Airlines flight numbered ELY82.

It was an almost 11-hour flight on the Boeing 777-200 to Israel, taking a cautious route well to the west of Yemen while flying along the Red Sea to Tel Aviv. El Al passenger planes are fitted with Flight Guard, an anti-missile system using Doppler radar that can detect potential incoming missiles. The system can eject flares to divert any heat-seeking missiles. El Al is considered the safest airline in the world.

The plane, with its F-35 cargo, landed at Ben Gurion International Airport at 6.33am Israel time. It was Friday, 19 September. From the airport it’s just a quick 120km courier drive down the Yitzhak Rabin Highway, to Nevatim in the Negev Desert, the consignment’s final destination, and home of Israel’s main F-35 jet fighter base.

The wisdom of using civilian passenger planes for exporting weapons parts from Australia to the active war-zone of Israel raises questions regarding the safety of such a practice. The possibility of attempts to blockade or destroy such shipments is apparent, as shown by recent missile attacks on Israel’s civilian airports apparently from Houthi forces in Yemen.

Declassified Australia raised the question of safety of the flights with the Department of Defence prior to publication, but received no response. Any potential risk to passenger safety appears to be either overlooked or disregarded.

The 68 weapons parts

Declassified Australia has seen shipping records of 68 direct shipments of F-35 fighter parts to Israel, and has examined some of these in close detail.

Several components listed in the shipping records are of particular interest:

• Tie-rods for the F-35 plane’s aft tail rudder.
• Actuator for the door under the F-35 for dispersing InfraRed Counter Measures.
• Display Visors for the specialised Generation III helmet worn by F-35 pilots.
• Plus there are various radios, specialised parts, assemblies, switches, bushes, sleeves, valves, cables, nuts, packing material and other items, all designed for the F-35 fighter jets.

All of these components are labelled as being for the Joint Strike Fighter, except the helmet display visor which is unique to the F-35 pilots. Several of the parts are labelled as being subject to the ITAR of the US State Department, which sets out the controls for the export of weapons and defence articles.

Questions put to the Defence Department by Declassified Australia seeking information about these exports, and the role of the defence minister in apparently monitoring them, went unanswered by the time of publication.

An earlier explanation regularly provided to the media is that the F-35 parts being exported are RAAF parts sent for repair to Israel before return to Australia.

On 6 June 2024, Labor Senator Jenny McAllister, representing the defence minister in the Senate, and backed by a phalanx of senior Defence officials, defended the export of weapon parts to Israel. She explained that while 66 permits remain active at that time, only eight defence-related permits had been granted since 7 October 2023.

Defence deputy secretary Hugh Jeffrey offered an innocent explanation. Many of the parts would include “dual-use ICT [Information and Communications Technology] hardware; software upgrades with legitimate commercial applications; and the return of equipment to original manufacturers for repair or overhaul or just to Israel permanently”.

McAllister took up the “repair” theme, confirming that some export permits were for items that had been exported to Israel merely for repair:

“I want to be very clear that these new export permits are for items used by Australian defence and law enforcement, and will return to Australia.”

Clearly, the provision of at least 51 F-35 parts from Australia marked as going to the Nevatim airbase in Israel, home of the Israeli F-35s, is suggestive of them being used in the Israeli planes, rather than being repaired and returned to Australia.

A close examination of several of the 68 items recorded in the shipping documents seen by Declassified Australia, strongly suggests otherwise – or perhaps has exposed an export pathway of which the Senator is not aware. Not all of the F-35 parts exported directly from Australia to Israel can be readily classified as having been sent to Israel for repair.

Unlikely for repair

Let’s examine three of those clearly identifiable components from the leaked shipping records:

‘EDF rudder tie rod aft’ 

Exported from Australia to Israel in April this year is a Tie-rod that is used to move the Electrically Driven Fin tail rudders on the rear fuselage of the F-35 fighter.

These F-35 tie rods in Australia are  repaired and maintained near Melbourne by Moog Australia. It would seem most unlikely for an RAAF-use item to be sent 14,000 kilometres to Israel for ‘repair’, given they can be repaired here in Australia.

A more likely explanation would be it is a part being sent from the Australian F-35 spare parts inventory – or it may even be an Israeli Air Force item being returned to Israel after repair with the company in Australia.

‘Actuator, door IRCM’

Exported from Australia to Israel in May, the actuator is a hydraulic thruster that opens the door to the F-35’s InfraRed Counter Measures compartment on the underside of the plane. It is from this compartment that the plane can emit flares to divert defensive enemy missiles during bombing runs on Gaza or another designated enemy.

Those actuators in Australia are  repaired and maintained in Melbourne by Rosebank Engineering (formerly RUAG Australia), a major global manufacturer of actuators. It would seem unlikely to be an RAAF-use item sent to Israel for “repair”.

A possible explanation would be it is a part being sent directly to Israel from the Australian F-35 spare parts inventory. It could possibly be an item sent by Israel to Australia for repair, and then exported back to Israel to be refitted to an Israeli F-35 for further missions over Gaza.

‘Generation III display visor’

Exported from Australia to Israel in October 2024, the Visor is a component of the F-35 Generation III Helmet Mounted Display System used exclusively by Joint Strike Fighter pilots. It is  manufactured in New Hampshire in the US, by Collins Elbit Vision Systems, a collaborative effort between Collins Aerospace and Elbit America.

Collins Elbit says the heads-up display that is projected onto the visor enhances the pilot’s ability to better target the F-35’s weapons:

“The head-up display, helmet-mounted display, and visor-projected night vision are fully integrated to provide pilots with unprecedented capability in the fighter cockpit. They can target their weapons and maintain advanced spatial orientation while continually monitoring critical flight information.” 

Shipments of a total of 17 of these highly specialised helmet display visors for the F-35 pilots have been made directly to Israel from Australia since October 2023. They were found in the leaked shipping records, and also in lists of Exports to Israel exclusively published by Declassified Australia colleague, Kellie Tranter and published  in April and  July 2025.

It would seem odd that visors in Australia that are manufactured in the US would be sent into an active war zone in Israel for repairs. More likely they have been pulled from the Australian spares inventory and shipped as a priority to the highly operationally-paced Israeli theatre of war.

Declassified Australia contacted Lockheed Martin Australia to ask about the direct shipment of parts and components for its F-35 fighter jets directly from Australia to Israel. A spokesperson declined to provide specific details about the shipments from Australia, but noted:

“Details regarding the shipment of F-35 components are best addressed by the US Government”.

Unfortunately, Australia’s Defence Department, despite obligations for transparency and democratic accountability, in response to questions put to them regarding these documented direct shipments of F-35 parts and components to Israel from Australia, declined to answer.

The denials

The standardised response from government ministers and defence bureaucrats has been that “Australia has not supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel since the Hamas-Israel conflict began and for at least the five years prior” – but of course that intentionally misses referring to weapons “parts and components”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was  caught out on 28 July when answering a question from Greens Senator David Shoebridge about the 11 July Declassified Australia article that revealed a  direct trade in F-35 parts is occurring. Wong returned to the tired line from her briefing notes:

“I have said in this place and so has the prime minister in the other place. We are not supplying weapons or ammunition to Israel. We have not done so since the Hamas-Israel conflict began. And for at least the past five years.”

But when directed to answer specifically about the “parts and components” for Israel’s F-35s as we have  revealed, Wong corrected her answer, now admitting parts and components are indeed sent into the global supply chain that provides parts to Israel. But in answering, she dug herself into a deeper hole:

“The F-35 we are part of a longstanding F-35 consortium. It is essential to our sovereign defence capability and manufacture… The F-35 as part of the global F35 supply chain, we contribute components and parts that are non-lethal in nature.” [Our emphasis]

That reference to “non-lethal” weapons parts was widely met with howls of derision. But it was the line repeated soon after in interviews during August by Defence Minister Richard Marles and by his Assistant Defence Minister Peter Khalil, indicating that the federal government  intends to persist with its denials:

“Australian companies supply non‑lethal parts to the F‑35… These are parts that the Australian companies provide to the F-35. So, there is a real, there’s a global supply chain. There’s over 100 companies that are involved in the supply of the F-35… We don’t sell any weapons directly to Israel.”

The government is digging in. As recently as September, Labor MPs have been responding to constituents’ increasing questions about Australia’s arms trade to Israel, by repeating the familiar line but with one modification.

Gone from the denial is reference to “weapons or ammunition”, now to be replaced by a reference to “weapons or parts”. But still the denial continues:

“Australia does not supply weapons or parts of weapons to Israel – and hasn’t done so for more than five years.”

The leaked shipping records seen by Declassified Australia show Australia is sending an extensive inventory of weapons parts for the F-35 directly to Israel, and as recently as just last month.

 

Republished from Declassified Australia, 1 October 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.