LONDON – A former Rolls-Royce employee has been arrested in the UK underthe Official Secrets Act for allegedly plotting to hand top-secret militaryinformation relating to the F-35B stealth fighter jet to China.
The individual — named by The Sunlink>newspaperas Ex-Chief Combustion Technologist Bryn Jones, 73 — was arrested after MI5received intelligence indicating classified defense intelligence may havebeen passed to Beijing.
He is accused of breaching Section One of the Official Secrets Actlink>, relatingto national security, which carries a maximum 14 year prison sentence.
Jones, whose LinkedIn profilelink> indicates he’s a”visiting professor” in “gas turbine combustion” at the AeronauticalUniversity of Xian, central China, was released on bail mere hoursafter officers from Scotland Yard’s SO15 counter-terrorism command raidedhis home June 12.
Jones worked for Rolls-Royce’s combustion engineering section from 1968 —2003. In 1996 he became Chief of Combustion Technology Acquisition, wherehis role involved “assessing military and civil product needs” — in 2000,he landed the post of Chief Combustion Technologist, which he retaineduntil he left the compan[image: F-35]
He subsequently formed independent combustion consultancy Kausis —but there are suggestions he maintained a relationship of some kindwith his former employer. His positions would’ve potentially granted himextremely sensitive — and valuable — information on the company’s workin the military sector.
As a result, detectives are probing whether details of several Rolls-Roycedefense contracts were put at risk — including systems which power theRoyal Navy’s Trafalgar and Vanguard submarine fleet.
Of chief concern, however, is the potential for the F-35B to have beencompromised. While Lockheed Martin designed and built the plane,Rolls-Royce was one of several companies contracted to produce parts of thejet — it was responsible for the ‘lift system’ allowing the plane to hoverand land vertically on aircraft carriers.
The F-35B has a top speed of 1.6 Mach (1,200 miles per hour), carriesair-to-air missiles and lazer-guided bombs which can be deployed within a1,300-mile range, and can deflect enemy radar to fly almost unnoticed.