Auditors Find Gaps in Records for $31 Billion in F-35 Spare Parts, Urge Fixes to Protect Readiness

The federal government owns roughly 26 million spare parts for the F-35 Lightning II, valued at about $31 billion, yet it cannot reliably show where all of them are, what condition they are in, or what taxpayers paid for them, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office ^[1]. The parts are spread across more than 700 contractor- and government-run facilities around the world, the watchdog found ^[1].

The report, released Nov. 9, says the department the administration now calls the Department of War needs to strengthen its oversight of tens of billions of dollars in parts ^[1]. Program officials told auditors the $31 billion figure is probably too low, because some parts are missing from the department's records altogether, The Center Square reported ^[2].

For the pilots and maintainers who depend on that inventory, this is not a bookkeeping footnote. A jet waiting on a part nobody can locate is a jet that is not ready to fight.

What the auditors found

GAO concluded that records in the F-35 program's accountable property system remain unreliable and are not updated in real time, and that the department has not set up procedures to ensure its own records are good enough to account for the parts and report on them financially ^[1]. The Pentagon's Enterprise Logistics Management System cannot follow the shared inventory as it changes because it is not connected to contractors' property management systems, The Aviationist reported ^[3].

The data problems are basic. In a December 2025 contractor data submission, only 29 percent of parts records included serial numbers and only 43 percent carried National Stock Numbers, while almost 6 percent listed an acquisition cost of a penny or less, figures auditors flagged as signs of possible data errors ^[1].

As of March 2026, more than 17,000 parts worth at least $1.3 billion were missing from the program's inventory system, according to The Aviationist ^[3]. Officials told auditors the value could climb to roughly $2.5 billion once missing cost information is added ^[1]. The report also found that the officers responsible for tracking government property lack F-35-specific procedures and training, and that there were no established procedures for reviewing parts losses at government-managed facilities ^[1].

To be clear, the finding is about records. Auditors did not conclude that the bulk of the inventory has vanished; they concluded the government cannot reliably prove what it has ^[1].

An old warning, still unresolved

This is not the first alarm. In 2023, GAO found that a prime contractor had recorded the loss of more than 1 million F-35 parts worth over $85 million between May 2018 and October 2022, Military.com reported ^[4]. As of March 2026, the F-35 Joint Program Office still did not know the status of those parts ^[4]. Because the program office had not kept adequate records, officials could not tell whether about $28 million in newer losses included any of the original $85 million ^[4].

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The cost of keeping the fleet flying has been climbing for years. GAO reported in 2024 that the estimated lifetime cost to sustain the F-35 rose 44 percent, from $1.1 trillion in 2018 to $1.58 trillion in 2023, even as planned use and availability declined ^[5]. In June 2026, GAO found the fleet's mission capable rate, the share of time a jet can perform at least one assigned mission, fell from 67 percent in fiscal 2021 to 44 percent in fiscal 2025, while the full mission capable rate slid from 38 percent to 25 percent ^[6]. The same report said the program's readiness reset will need an estimated $13.7 billion more than planned through fiscal 2031, about $7.3 billion of it for spare parts and repair materials ^[6].

Why it matters, and what comes next

That is where the new findings bite. GAO cautioned that without reliable records the department may be unable to identify what it actually needs or account for the additional parts it buys under that reset strategy, The Aviationist reported ^[3]. Buying spares the government already owns, or failing to buy the ones it lacks, wastes money and grounds aircraft.

GAO made four recommendations, including that the department develop, document and carry out F-35-specific procedures for monitoring parts losses, along with procedures and training for accountable property officers ^[1]. It also called for a staffing plan setting how many of those officers the program needs, where they should work and how much time the job requires ^[1]. The department concurred with all four recommendations and cited actions it is taking to address them ^[1].

The Joint Program Office said it is working to establish direct, real-time data connections with contractors and has been testing an interface with one major contractor ^[3]. In March 2026, the Pentagon comptroller's office asked the Defense Contract Audit Agency to help build an auditable baseline of the parts, and as of June the agency was targeting March 2027 for its first full inventory, The Aviationist reported ^[3].

The department's agreement is a good start, but follow-through is what counts. Faithful stewardship of $31 billion in taxpayer-owned equipment is not a partisan cause. It is part of keeping faith with the men and women who fly and fix these jets, and with the working families who pay for them.