The Benefits of Stealing Designs

China's strike fighter the J-31, is a mirror of the J-35 made by Lockheed Martin.  So, we have to wonder if they stole that design from Lockheed or the Air Force. It makes a difference to those defending their reputation, but from the standpoint of the loss of technology, it hardly matters.  China was accused of stealing the designs in 2009, and unlike Lockheed, actually flew it two years later.  China is a thief, but they are also good at using that stolen technology to get a product to market.  They do it much better than we do.

Go to the article by Marcus Weisgerber at http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/09/more-questions-f-35-after-new-specs-chinas-copycat/121859/ and look at the picture of the plane.  Most countries would at least change the design some so it doesn't look like the one they stole, but China doesn't even bother to do that.   I heard of a case of a flawed software product stolen by Chinese vendors and they marketed it with the same flaws as the original.  They could have fixed the problems and had a better product, but it slows down delivery.  They have no pride.  They are focused on the end product and getting it out ahead of their competition.

There are really two issues here.  The first is the inability of our defense contractors and government to keep our secrets secret.  The Boards of Directors aren't paying attention.  That loss of investment, and lengthy delivery time, cost them profits, but gives them some leverage to ask for more money to make enhancements to compensate for the loss of technological advantage.  We end up paying for their mistakes, multiple times.

The second is the loss of technological advantage that keeps our military small, but effective.  Being small, without that technical advantage is a very dangerous proposition.  The current administration has cut defense so much that we no longer have the numbers that are needed to fight wars created by the lack of foreign policy.  Losing the technological advantage puts more pressure on that smaller force.  If you are sitting in the West Wing of the White House, it isn't noticeable, but if you are intercepting a Chinese J-31 in your hot new J-35, you might.