Noah Shachtman
Security

Stealth Fighter's Secrets are Safe, Contractor Insists

Defense contractor BAE Systems is hitting back at government investigators who accused the company of not properly protecting secrets on a stealth fighter program. "There is no basis whatsoever for that conclusion," company spokesman Greg Caires insisted in an unusually strongly-worded statement. A Department of Defense Inspector General [DoD IG] report, unearthed yesterday and first […]

080125f1234j034 Defense contractor BAE Systems is hitting back at government investigators who accused the company of not properly protecting secrets on a stealth fighter program. "There is no basis whatsoever for that conclusion," company spokesman Greg Caires insisted in an unusually strongly-worded statement.

A Department of Defense Inspector General [DoD IG] report, unearthed yesterday and first reported by DANGER ROOM, said that "the advanced aviation and weapons technology for the JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] program may have been compromised" because procedures for securing classified material weren't fully followed. In particular, the report called into the question the relationship between BAE and government overseers from the Defense Security Service. The civil servants failed to identify a number of "security weaknesses" at company facilities, the audit alleges. And BAE rebuffed Defense Security Service attempts to examine their internal security audits.

But Caires notes that “the DoD IG explicitly found no instances of unauthorized access to classified or export control information on the JSF program."

*We strongly disagree with the IG's suggestion that nonetheless, such information may have been compromised in some unidentified way by unauthorized access at BAE Systems. There is no basis whatsoever for that conclusion. *

*“BAE Systems takes very seriously their obligation to protect classified and export controlled information and has a compliance program that reflects the highest of standards. BAE Systems has a long and proven track record of safeguarding sensitive information entrusted to it. *

*“BAE Systems also strongly disagrees with the suggestion that we did not perform required audits and fully comply with our Special
Security Agreement. That suggestion is simply false. *

“BAE Systems previously requested a meeting with the DoD IG to resolve what appears to us to be a misunderstanding of the underlying facts.”

[Photo: USAF]

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