{"id":164142,"date":"2026-11-11T03:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T21:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviationa2z.com\/?p=164142"},"modified":"2026-11-11T00:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T19:04:39","slug":"f-35-lose-track-of-85-million-in-fighter-jet-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviationa2z.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/11\/f-35-lose-track-of-85-million-in-fighter-jet-parts\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Advanced Fighter Jets in the World Lose Track of $85 Million in Fighter Jet Parts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARLINGTON-<\/strong> The F-35<\/a> Joint Program Office (JPO) does not know the status of lost F-35 parts valued at over $85 million, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GAO also found incomplete records for about 26 million parts worth roughly $31 billion<\/strong>. Separately, reports in September said a shipment of sensitive F-35 parts was diverted to Hong Kong (HKG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Lockheed Martin employee works on one of the CWA bulkheads for Switzerland\u2019s first F-35 | Photo: Lockheed Martin photographer Thinh D. Nguyen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

F-35 Program Lost Visibility of Spare Parts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As Air & Space Forces<\/a> reports, the GAO released the report, GAO-27-108713, on Nov. 9. The F-35 is the Department of Defense\u2019s (DOD) most costly weapon system in history, with life-cycle costs estimated at more than $1.9 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program includes about 26 million parts valued at about $31 billion, held at more than 700 contractor-managed and government-managed facilities worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contractor facilities hold about 30% of the parts, and government facilities hold the other 70 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOD owns these parts but does not maintain complete records of them. JPO financial officials told the GAO the $31 billion value is likely higher because some parts are excluded or missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program shares one common pool of parts, such as engines, tires, support equipment, bolts, and screws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants include the US Air Force<\/a>, Navy, and Marine Corps, seven international partner nations and 12 foreign military sales customers as of September 2026. They do not buy the parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They pay for access based on projected use, which depends on factors such as the number of aircraft and planned flight hours. The design was meant to ease the logistics burden and create economies of scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: USAF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2023 Report Remains Unresolved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is a longstanding problem. A May 2023 GAO report, which was also critical of the JPO\u2019s supply tracking, found that one prime contractor lost more than 1 million F-35 parts valued at over $85 million between May 2018 and October 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 940,000 of those parts, worth over $66 million, had not been reported for adjudication. Adjudication is the process DOD uses to review a loss and decide whether the contractor or the government is liable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2025, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) allowed a one-time bulk process for the contractor to submit its outstanding losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By March 2026, the contractor had submitted about $28 million<\/strong> in losses from 2012 through 2025. DCMA had found the contractor financially liable for about $6 million of that amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JPO could not say whether the $28 million included any of the $85 million flagged in 2023. It had not kept a record of those earlier losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JPO also does not know the quantity, value, location, cause, or adjudication status of losses reported at government facilities before September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GAO did not conclude that every part remains physically missing. It found that the JPO cannot determine what happened to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Finnish Air Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Contractor Systems Delay Real-Time Tracking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Enterprise Logistics Management System (ELMS) is the program\u2019s official property record. It does not connect to the property systems of the two prime contractors, Lockheed Martin<\/a> and Pratt & Whitney<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JPO therefore updates ELMS from several sources. Support equipment and armament data arrive daily. Records for the joint spares pool rely on quarterly contractor reports, so some data can be more than three months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of July 2026, the JPO was testing an interface with one prime contractor and expected a live connection in September 2026. The report does not confirm that the connection was completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GAO also found gaps in the data itself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n