Summary and Key Points: A Russian pilot, known as "Fighterbomber" on Telegram, has reportedly leaked documents related to the U.S. Air Force's F-35 Lightning II and F-15 Eagle jet fighters.
-The leaked files, including maintenance manuals and other sensitive data, were posted to his channel, which has 500,000 subscribers.
-Although many files have been deleted, some remain accessible.
Social media has made classified documents much easier to leak. In recent years, for example, gamers have shared manuals and other documents about military systems on gaming forums related to military aircraft and tanks. In most cases, the gamers were actual operators or maintainers of the affected platform.
Now, a recent leak might involve the most advanced fighter aircraft in the American military.
On Tuesday, the South China Morning Post reported that a Russian pilot known on Telegram as "Fighterbomber" posted documents purportedly related to the U.S. Air Force's F-35 Lightning II and F-15 Eagle jet fighters. The paper of record further identified the individual as "Ivan Ivanov," but that has not been confirmed.
The individual first posted files including manuals from the American military aircraft, as well as documents on U.S. Switchblade drones and other weapons systems including precision-guided missiles, on his channel last Tuesday. Fighterbomber’s channel has a reported 500,000 subscribers.
He claimed to have at least 250 gigabytes of U.S. military data, which he said were obtained via a U.S.-based company. The poster did not specify which company may have been involved or when he first came to have the files. While many of the files have been deleted, some of the documents were still available as of Tuesday afternoon.
According to SCMP, the files included a maintenance manual for the F110 engine used by the F-15SA – a variant of the F-15 Eagle in service with Saudi Arabia – as well as a flight manual and maintenance manuals for the aircraft itself.
The documents related to the F-35 were described as "being partially redacted," which SCMP also reported "may indicate they were already declassified."
The Air Force has not responded to the claims, but the Morning Post indicated that at least some of the documents have been viewed by Chinese officials, who said they are authentic.
"We downloaded and examined the files, much of this content appears to be highly authentic," said Tang, the chief marketing officer of Beijing-based antivirus and network security firm Rising Information Technology. He requested to be referred to by his surname only.
"The documents are detailed and their format resembles other U.S. military information previously leaked online. However, these are not strictly blueprints or design documents, and their true value can only be assessed by professionals," Tang told SCMP.
Telegram users joked that regular people could now build an F-15 or an F-35 in the garage. More seriously, it remains unclear how damaging – if at all – this information might be. As noted, gamers in the past have leaked information about various platforms, including the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Still, security experts warn the leak of any information that hasn't been officially released about a platform can compromise the capabilities and security of the U.S. military's systems.
Moreover, such data can provide a shortcut for other nations, as shown by Beijing's efforts to employ hackers to obtain classified materials related to Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II programs. Beijing wished to use such materials to jumpstart China's effort to develop its own fifth-generation fighter.
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.
Image Credit: Creative Commons.
