The Pentagon is facing backlash after mistakenly posting an image of a Chinese fighter jet instead of the U.S. F-35 in a Veterans Day tribute.
While seeking to honor veterans on November 11, the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) shared a social media post thanking vets for their service. The post featured an image of a fighter jet beneath the American flag.
However, users were quick to point out that the jet in the image resembled China's J-35. The post went viral as users accusing the Pentagon of disrespecting veterans and making a mistake, TMZ reported.
The program initially disabled comments but later deleted the post altogether. The controversy has fueled widespread backlash and theories, with several social media users demanding accountability and introducing their own reasoning behind the mistake.
One Reddit user found the original, non-photoshopped image and presented a unique theory.
"I'm guessing what happened here was some PLA fan took an actual F-35 photo and photoshopped it with two engines to get an art that can pass off as J-35 (prior to the recent J-35A reveal), and then someone at JPO just decided to use that image and not bother looking too closely and missed it. I'm pretty sure the front of J-35 doesn't look like that," the Redditor wrote.
Meanwhile, another user blamed the issue on AI, saying, "Or someone asked an AI image generator for an F-35."
On the other hand, several X users were disappointed and enraged, with some calling it "disrespectful and embarrassing."
"Someone needs to be fired for this post," one user tweeted, while another added, "Whoever runs this page is an embarrassment."
"The Biden admin just posted a Chinese plane to honor Veterans Day...The JPO is the official Joint Strike Fighter office... aka responsible for the the F-35... The pic is of a Chinese stealth fighter... the knockoff of the F-35," comedian Tim Young wrote on X.
The Pentagon has not yet followed up or commented on the issue.
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