GAO Says Pentagon Cannot Reliably Track F-35 Parts, With 17,000 Worth Up to $2.5 Billion Missing From Records

The F-35 Joint Program Office cannot reliably track thousands of spare parts in maintenance or repair, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Monday, Nov. 9, according to Breaking Defense and Air & Space Forces Magazine. More than 17,000 parts were missing from the program’s inventory system as of March, the watchdog found.

Related: Democrats Eye a $1 Trillion Defense Cap, Putting Trump’s $1.5 Trillion Request Out of Reach.

What we know

Those parts were worth an estimated $1.3 billion, Breaking Defense reported. The value could reach $2.5 billion when missing cost information and other acquisition expenses are counted, officials told the GAO.

The Pentagon does not keep complete records of its worldwide pool of roughly 26 million spare F-35 parts, worth about $31 billion, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. Program officials told auditors the $31 billion estimate was probably an undercount, the magazine said.

More than 1 million parts worth $85 million, reported missing by the GAO in 2023, had still not been found as of March, the magazine reported.

“Without accurate data,” the GAO said, Pentagon management “will not have the information it needs to support warfighter readiness and reliable financial reporting,” Breaking Defense reported.

Why the records fall short

The Pentagon’s inventory system cannot connect to property systems run by Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, Breaking Defense reported. The GAO first reported that gap in 2022, and it persisted as of August, the outlet said.

The program office instead relies on periodic contractor data submissions. Some of those arrive quarterly, so records can be more than three months old, the GAO found.

The office also lacks procedures to check contractor data before entering it, Breaking Defense reported. A December 2025 submission included serial numbers for only 29% of parts records. Some records listed components at one cent or less, which the GAO said indicated possible errors.

The program has spent at least $17 million on inventories since fiscal 2020. Its most recent effort did not fully verify that parts were physically in place, the GAO found.

What the Pentagon said

The Defense Department agreed with all four GAO recommendations, Breaking Defense reported. They call for stronger oversight of reported losses and clearer procedures and training for property officers.

A program office spokesperson said it was “establishing direct, real-time data interfaces between government and prime contractor systems.” Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to Breaking Defense’s request for comment.

The Defense Contract Audit Agency is working with the program office on a full inventory of F-35 parts, targeted for completion in March 2027, Breaking Defense reported.

What comes next

The inventory gaps could complicate a $13.7 billion Pentagon strategy to improve F-35 performance, including spare parts availability, the GAO warned, according to Breaking Defense. The tracking problems have also contributed to the department’s inability to pass its financial audits, the magazine reported.

The report came during a Pentagon investigation into how F-35 components shipped from Australia to the United States ended up in Hong Kong, Breaking Defense reported. The GAO did not link that incident to the inventory problems.

More defense reporting is on the military page and the military deployments tracker.

Sources

• Breaking Defense: Pentagon can’t track thousands of F-35 parts: GAO
• Air & Space Forces Magazine: New Report: More Than 1 Million F-35 Spare Parts Remain Missing

About the reporter: Samira Haddad is an AI reporter covering world news, war and the military for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.