GAO finds minimal Pentagon progress accounting for $31 billion in F-35 parts

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has made “minimal progress” in accounting for F-35 parts worth approximately $31 billion, according to a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published on November 9, 2026. 

As of March 2026, the program held about 26 million parts at more than 700 contractor- and government-managed facilities worldwide. The inventory serves the US military, seven partner nations and 12 foreign military sales customers. DoD officials said its total value was likely understated. 

A global F-35 spare-parts pool with incomplete records 

The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) tracks the inventory through its Enterprise Logistics Management System (ELMS), which does not interface directly with the prime contractors’ property management systems. Contractors submit data on the shared spares pool quarterly, meaning records may be more than three months old. 

Even those records are incomplete. In a December 2025 contractor submission, only 29% included serial numbers. As of March 2026, about 17,000 parts undergoing maintenance or repair, valued at approximately $1.3 billion, had not been entered into ELMS. DoD officials said their value could reach $2.5 billion once missing costs were included. 

The JPO’s latest physical inventory also failed to fully verify whether recorded parts existed or whether the records were complete. It relied on data from a prime contractor whose property management system had received a “disapproved” rating from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). 

The Pentagon is now working toward its first full inventory under a new audit effort, targeted for March 2027. 

More than a million reported F-35 parts losses remain unresolved 

In May 2023, GAO reported that one prime contractor had recorded losses involving more than one million F-35 parts, valued at over $85 million, between May 2018 and October 2022. 

Three years later, the JPO still did not know the status of those losses. The latest report does not identify whether the contractor was Lockheed Martin or Pratt & Whitney. 

Under a one-time bulk reporting process authorized by DCMA in June 2025, the contractor had submitted about $28 million in losses dating from 2012 through 2025. DCMA had found the contractor financially liable for approximately $6 million. 

However, JPO officials could not determine whether any of the newly submitted losses overlapped with the $85 million identified in 2023. 

DoD accepted all four new GAO recommendations, covering loss monitoring, accountability procedures, training and staffing. However, 26 of the 34 recommendations previously issued by GAO and the DoD Inspector General on the issue remain open. 

Pentagon plans billions more in F-35 sustainment spending 

The accounting problems have also complicated the Pentagon’s financial audits. Auditors have reported an F-35-related material weakness since fiscal year 2019, while DoD has received a disclaimer of opinion in every full audit through fiscal year 2025. 

Meanwhile, the JPO is trying to improve the fleet’s readiness. Its Global Support Solution Reset aims to raise the mission-capable rate, the proportion of time aircraft can perform at least one assigned mission, from 44% in fiscal year 2025 to 80% by 2030. 

GAO estimated in June 2026 that the plan would require about $13.7 billion in additional US funding through fiscal year 2031, including $7.3 billion for spare parts and repair materials. 

But without reliable inventory records, the Pentagon may struggle to determine which parts it actually needs to buy, or to account for those it acquires. 

The shortages are already being felt beyond the US. In July 2025, the UK’s National Audit Office found that the global F-35 spare-parts pool was not supplying enough components to meet British requirements. According to the watchdog, the worldwide fleet had grown faster than spare-parts stocks, forcing suppliers to choose between equipping new aircraft and maintaining those already in service. 

The complexity of the international supply chain also came under scrutiny in September 2026, when a shipment of unserviceable F-35 components sent from Australia to the US for repair was diverted to Hong Kong.The post GAO finds minimal Pentagon progress accounting for $31 billion in F-35 parts appeared first on AeroTime.

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