Leaked shipping records show Australian F-35 parts continuing to reach Israel on passenger aircraft, with shipments now routed through the United States rather than Thailand.

Following last year’s revelations of the secret shipping of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel through Thailand from Sydney, new documents show that parts are now being routed onto passenger jets through the United States.

New shipping records leaked to Declassified Australia show the secret cargo of Australian parts for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets has been diverted onto passenger planes of US airline United Airlines.

After two years being flown on Thai Airways planes, the records indicate the sensitive shipments leaving Sydney are no longer regularly flying through Bangkok but are now taking a longer pathway through the United States.

This logistical pivot seems to have come after exclusive reporting last year by Declassified Australia in October that has shown multiple exports of F-35 fighter jet parts from Sydney to Israel via Bangkok.

For months senior ministers had been claiming firstly that Australia exports no weapons at all to Israel, then conceding that exports may be going to a US global hub, and then claiming that only non-lethal weapons parts were exported to Israel.

When challenged about the F-35 parts supply route through Bangkok to Israel as reported by Declassified Australia, the government doubled down. Greens Senator David Shoebridge raised questions in the Senate, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong responding:

Further leaks to Declassified Australia revealed that by November last year the total of known exports of F-35 fighter jet parts since October 2023 had reached at least 71 shipments.

Of particular relevance to the foreign minister’s claim, these shipments included a gasket for the F-35’s four-barrel 25mm GAU-22/A cannon that fires 3,300 rounds per minute to devastating effect in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran – certainly a very lethal weapon.

Despite months of ministers’ denials and farcical claims, no amount of political spin could now convince the public that the export of items such as a cannon part was ‘dual use’ or ‘non-lethal’. With this reporting, every element of the government’s cover story has now fallen apart.

On Wednesday, 10 December 2025, the new secret pipeline of F-35 parts went live.

According to new shipping records leaked to Declassified Australia, the first F-35 fighter jet part flown out of Sydney on the new airline and the new route was described obscurely as a ‘Clamp’.

It was however clearly labelled as being for the ‘JSF’, the Joint Strike Fighter, and was marked as having been sent to Israel from ‘2314 Williamtown’, which is the unique postcode address of RAAF Base Williamtown, home of Australia’s fleet of F-35A Joint Strike Fighters. Williamtown is also home to BAE Systems’ Regional Sustainment Depot, which provides repairs and maintenance for the F-35s.

In Sydney on a clear December........

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