Fighter jet program may have compromised secret technology

In a report made public Thursday, the Pentagon's Inspector General found that the Defense Security Service did not do enough to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive Joint Strike Fighter program technology at BAE facilities and computers. The Defense Security Service is an arm of the Pentagon that works with government contractors to protect classified information.

The report did not cite any actual breaches of information.

BAE, the largest foreign defense contractor serving the U.S. military, is a major subcontractor on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., is the lead contractor on the program, one of the most expensive in Pentagon history.

The Pentagon recently put the cost of the Joint Strike Fighter program at $298.8 billion. The military plans to purchase 2,443 of the fighter jets for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.

The Inspector General report was released in March but made public on Thursday in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, including one by the Project on Government Oversight.

Among the reports findings:

While Defense Security officials did conduct security reviews at BAE facilities, they did not properly monitor and evaluate BAE audit reports on the company's security controls for 2004 and 2005.

The Defense Security Service discarded older BAE security reports, making it impossible to determine whether security weaknesses identified in 2001, 2002 and 2003 had been resolved.

Pentagon officials deferred to BAE when the contractor refused to provide access to information from internal security audits.