Washington:The Pentagon continues to face difficulties in accounting for millions of F-35 spare parts valued at billions of dollars, despite years of warnings from oversight bodies. This issue is highlighted in a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
According to Anadolu Agency – English, the report released on Monday by the GAO describes the Pentagon's records for the F-35 spare parts as outdated, inaccurate, and incomplete. This comes in the wake of audits by the GAO and the Department of Defense's inspector general, which have consistently revealed deficiencies in the inventory management of the F-35 program since 2019.
The report indicates minimal progress by the Department of Defense in achieving and maintaining accountability for F-35 parts, a problem identified seven years ago. The F-35 program, unlike typical military aircraft programs, uses a shared spare parts system that serves the US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and international operators.
As of March 2026, the shared inventory comprised approximately 26 million spare parts with an estimated value of $31 billion. However, about 17,000 components valued at up to $2.5 billion were not accounted for within the Pentagon's Enterprise Logistics Management System, which handles property and logistics records.
The report also underscores unresolved issues from previous investigations. In 2023, the GAO found that a major contractor had lost track of over 1 million F-35 spare parts, valued at over $85 million, between 2018 and 2022. The F-35 Joint Program Office had not yet resolved the status of these components as of March 2026.
Lockheed Martin and Pratt and Whitney, the main contractors for the F-35 program, manufacture the aircraft's airframe and engines, respectively. In July 2026, Lockheed Martin received a $1.6 billion contract from the Pentagon to supply additional spare parts.
The GAO noted that the Pentagon's Enterprise Logistics Management System fails to track the shared inventory in real time due to a lack of integration with the contractors' property management systems. Additionally, the report identified questionable acquisition costs, with nearly 6% of a December 2025 dataset listing F-35 parts at $0.01 or less, suggesting possible data errors.
The GAO report concluded that the records of F-35 parts in the Enterprise Logistics Management System and the inventory results from the F-35 Joint Program Office are unreliable for asset accountability or financial reporting purposes.