If a third of the hydraulic fluid was water, it was like that meme video of the woman who added washer fluid to the car’s oil - no way was that going to work properly.
I don't know if this is what actually happened, but it would appear to be a very effective method of sabotage... Simply putting some water in the hydraulic fluid container destined for an F35 is an extremely high risk-adjusted ROI for any saboteurs.
That’s interesting. Can this effect pretty easily achieve the reported 30% water content?
No need for sabotage on the F-35. It's perfectly capable of destroying itself without any third-party interference.