[U.S. Media: Over 1 Million F-35 Spare Parts Still Unaccounted For]

According to a report published by the U.S.-based Air & Space Forces Magazine on November 9, 2026, U.S. government auditors revealed in a new assessment released on the same date that the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) lacks effective oversight over spare parts valued in the tens of billions of dollars for the fifth-generation fighter, and remains unable to locate spare parts worth $85 million that have been missing for several years.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated in its report that the Pentagon does not maintain complete records tracking the global pool of approximately 26 million F-35 spare parts, collectively valued at around $31 billion. The congressional oversight body added that existing records are frequently inaccurate, incomplete, and fail to reflect real-time changes.

The report also found that the F-35 JPO has not established an effective system for monitoring reports of lost parts, while property custodians have not received adequate training or standardized operating procedures necessary to carry out their duties.

The GAO stated: “Without implementing procedures to monitor losses, the F-35 JPO will be unable to fully assess the scale of spare part losses, diminishing its future capacity to reduce such losses and undermining its ability to detect fraud, waste, or theft.”

This issue has persisted for years. A GAO report issued in May 2023 similarly criticized the F-35 office’s supply chain tracking, noting that more than one million spare parts—valued at $85 million—had gone missing over the past five years. The latest report confirms that as of March 2026, these parts remain unlocated.

The F-35 program was originally designed to create a shared common spare parts pool among all participating entities—including the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps—as well as international partners and procurement nations, encompassing components such as engines, tires, support equipment, bolts, and screws.

Program officials told GAO auditors that due to large volumes of F-35 spare parts being excluded from official inventories or already lost, the estimated $31 billion valuation of the global spare parts pool is likely understated.

The GAO emphasized that persistent challenges in tracking spare parts have prevented the Department of Defense from passing its own financial audit. The report noted that this situation is unlikely to change until the F-35 program resolves its spare parts tracking deficiencies.

The GAO recommended that the Pentagon establish procedures to track reports of lost F-35 spare parts, develop standardized operating procedures and provide training for property custodians, and clearly define the roles of F-35 property custodians—including required staffing levels, deployment locations, and timeframes for task completion. The agency also reported that it is taking steps to incorporate F-35 spare parts into its financial statements, including developing processes to assign value to lost parts where cost data is missing.

A spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office stated in a written statement that the office concurs with the GAO’s recommendations.

However, the problem extends beyond the program office. The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, and Pratt & Whitney, the manufacturer of the F-35’s engine, both operate extensive supply chains whose property management systems are not directly integrated with the government’s enterprise logistics platform.

As a result, the JPO must manually import data from multiple external sources into its logistics system. Because one of these sources is updated only quarterly, some spare parts data may lag by more than three months, preventing the JPO from observing real-time movements or usage of specific parts.

As of fiscal year 2025, physical inventory counts conducted by the JPO remained unreliable. The GAO noted that since fiscal year 2020, the JPO has spent at least $17 million conducting manual inventories at contractor- and government-managed facilities. However, these efforts yielded minimal results due to unreliable records, spare parts in transit not being accounted for, and military and prime contractor personnel lacking visibility into the locations of sub-tier and tier-three subcontractors holding certain parts.

A spokesperson said: “To strengthen accountability and reduce F-35 spare part losses, the department is implementing targeted actions to monitor and analyze loss trends. The JPO is actively developing project-specific procedures and customized training for property custodians, alongside detailed plans to define and build out the APO (property custodian) program. The JPO is modernizing its asset management infrastructure and establishing direct, real-time data interfaces between government and prime contractor systems. This integration directly addresses prior systemic vulnerabilities to ensure seamless accountability for F-35 spare parts.”

In September of this year, the issue of missing F-35 spare parts made headlines. Reports emerged earlier this year that a shipment of sensitive spare parts, destined from Australia to the United States for repair, had been rerouted to Hong Kong and subsequently disappeared. POLITICO reported that the cargo included cockpit canopies incorporating sensitive stealth technology.

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Original article: toutiao.com/article/1881432564174026/

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