Opinion: Is there Soviet tech in our F-35s?

As Australia almost completes its fleet of fifth-generation fighters, comparisons with the Yak 141 won’t go away

Are there elements of Soviet-era engineering in the modern F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft currently employed by numerous NATO countries? It’s a tantalising open secret for the military aircraft community and not one likely to receive a straight response from massive aircraft manufacturing juggernaut Lockheed Martin or upstanding US military.

Rumours have long circulated about East European-sourced design details integrated into the trillion-dollar project’s X-35 history after it beat out the Boeing X-32 to win the Joint Strike Fighter program in 2001.