Pentagon Under Scrutiny Over F-35 Jet Parts Worth $1.3B
Summary
The Department of Defense has not recorded about 17,000 F-35 parts, valued at roughly $1.3 billion, in its property tracking system, the Government Accountability Office said. The parts may be in repair, maintenance, or transit, but the F-35 program office did not know the status of parts worth more than $85 million that the GAO identified in 2023.Key Facts
- The parts are missing from the Defense Department’s Enterprise Logistics Management System, which tracks property for the F-35 program.
- Defense contractors generally kept separate records for the parts, but the GAO said those records may be inaccurate or incomplete.
- The GAO said in March 2026 that the F-35 program office still did not know the status of parts worth more than $85 million identified in 2023.
- The F-35 program is estimated to cost more than $1.9 trillion over its lifetime.
- The GAO found that F-35 aircraft could complete all their missions only 25 percent of the time; the program office’s target is 65 percent by 2030.
- The GAO said all 110 F-35s delivered by Lockheed Martin in 2024 arrived an average of 238 days late.
- A maintenance overhaul launched in mid-2025 is projected to add $13.7 billion in costs through the end of fiscal year 2031.
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