The Government Accountability Office found that parts estimated at $1.3 billion were absent from inventory records, leaving the Pentagon without a reliable picture of where they are.
The F-35 Joint Program Office cannot reliably track thousands of spare parts undergoing maintenance or repair across the fighter jet’s global supply chain, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. The watchdog had previously warned in 2022 that government and contractor inventory systems could not communicate, a problem that persisted as of August 2026.
As of March 2026, more than 17,000 parts worth an estimated $1.3 billion were absent from the program’s inventory system, Breaking Defense said. Officials told GAO that their value could reach $2.5 billion when missing cost information and other acquisition expenses are considered. These figures describe parts missing from records, not a confirmed total of physically lost parts.
GAO said unreliable records and inadequate physical inventories leave Defense Department managers without the information they need to support operational readiness and reliable financial reporting. Its review examined accounting procedures and progress toward including the parts in department-wide financial statements; auditors reviewed documents, interviewed officials and visited sites.
The Defense Department owns the parts, but its Enterprise Logistics Management System cannot connect with property systems run by Lockheed Martin, the F-35’s prime contractor, or Pratt & Whitney, the RTX subsidiary that supplies its engine. The system can capture inventory changes in real time. The program office instead uses periodic contractor submissions and other Pentagon systems to update its records. GAO found that the office had not fully developed procedures to check the accuracy of incoming data.
GAO found that the latest physical inventory did not fully verify that parts were physically present or that inventory records accounted for all of them.
Contractors submit data for the shared spare-parts pool quarterly, so some records can be more than three months old. A December 2025 submission included serial numbers for only 29 percent of parts records and national stock numbers, which identify supply items, for 43 percent. Some listed prices of one cent or less, which GAO said could indicate errors.
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GAO warned that inaccurate records could make it harder to determine which spare parts are needed and account for purchases under the Pentagon’s $13.7 billion Global Support Solution Reset strategy, which includes improving spare-parts availability.
In 2023, GAO found that a prime contractor had lost more than 1 million F-35 parts worth over $85 million between May 2018 and October 2022. As of March 2026, the program office still did not know the status of those losses.
By March 2026, the contractor had submitted about $28 million in loss reports covering 2012 to 2025. The Defense Contract Management Agency determined that the contractor should be liable for about $6 million. The program office could not establish whether the reports included any losses from the earlier GAO review because it had not kept records of outstanding cases.
GAO made four recommendations, all of which the Defense Department agreed to and which GAO lists as open. It called for the department’s acquisition and sustainment leadership, working with the F-35 program executive officer and, on loss monitoring, the Defense Contract Management Agency, to establish procedures for tracking loss reports and analyzing trends. It also called for F-35-specific procedures and training for property officers, and a clear structure setting out their numbers, locations and required time commitments.
The program office said it was developing procedures and training, improving loss monitoring and establishing direct, real-time links between government and prime-contractor systems. Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency and the program office are working on a full F-35 parts inventory targeted for completion in March 2027.
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