An influential Russian military blogger has claimed to have obtained military documents on U.S.-made weapons and aircraft, including the advanced F-35 multirole fighter, which the Pentagon has described as "false."
Fighterbomber, a Russian military channel on messaging app Telegram that claims to have connections with Russia's air force, said earlier this month that it possessed around 250 gigabytes of data about U.S.-made fighter jets and weapons systems.
The documents shared by the Fighterbomber account appeared to show manuals for Paveway II guidance kits as well as instructions for iterations of F-15 Eagle fighter jets and technical details about U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs, which convert unguided bombs into precision-guided weapons.
In a separate post the following day, the account shared further files purportedly showing instructions for U.S.-designed drones and F-35 jets. Some files have reportedly been deleted since the original publication.
Lockheed Martin-made F-35s are fifth-generation aircraft that are replacing the likes of F-16s and other jets in many countries. At least 18 nations have received or ordered the jets
The alleged F-35 document, which bears the title "user manual," is heavily redacted. Much of what is legible appears to be public knowledge.
A Pentagon spokesperson told Newsweek that the information published on Telegram was "false."
It is not clear whether the Defense Department has examined the entire cache of published files.
"We are aware of the reports and have policies and procedures in place to mitigate cyber threats to our business," a spokesperson for Lockheed Martin told Newsweek in a statement. "We remain confident in the integrity of our robust, multi-layered information systems and data security."
Another document, labeled as unpublished work copyrighted by U.S.-based defense company Raytheon in 2015, appears to give details about the GBU-50 Enhanced Paveway II bomb. RTX, which includes Raytheon, declined to comment to Newsweek.
One cybersecurity expert, speaking to the South China Morning Post, said that "much of this content appears to be highly authentic."
Leaks of military material, depending on its classification level and authenticity, can have major implications for a country's government and military.
In April 2023, classified U.S. military documents widely circulated on social media, putting details on assessments of Ukraine's war effort against Russia and U.S. intelligence gathering into the public domain.
"The release of any classified document is an issue, as painstaking intelligence gathering may assemble large amounts of unrelated data into a useful picture of capabilities," argued weapons expert and journalist David Hambling.
"In this case, perhaps the most troubling aspect is the question of where the documents came from and how they were leaked," he told Newsweek.
It is not easy to work out whether the files are authentic and what level of classification they would fall under, he said, nor whether there are more valuable files to come.
"I don't know if they were already posted somewhere or not, most likely they were, but I think it won't hurt if I post them here for those who need them," wrote the Fighterbomber channel, which has a substantial following of more than half a million subscribers.
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