According to a new report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), more than one million spare parts for the F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet, worth at least $85 million, have disappeared without a trace over at least the past five years, Defense News reported on 31 May.
U.S. auditors pointed out that because the government does not have its own system for tracking parts and components, officials may not know how many parts are actually missing or exactly how much the shortfall is estimated to be. As a result, “the total number and value of these (lost) parts could be much higher” than the one million figure identified by the prime contractor, the Lockheed Martin Defence Corporation, the document said.
It also states that disagreements between U.S. Defense Department offices and the F-35 fighter-bomber manufacturer over how to classify missing parts and components “have hampered the government’s efforts to create its own reliable system for tracking parts.”
In other words, as part of the extremely costly F-35 programme, the government cannot know whether contractors are disposing of spare parts correctly, underscore GAO auditors, who have tracked “production losses” since 2018.
In an explanation to Defense News, Lockheed Martin said that the spare parts count mentioned in the report as lost cover the last two decades of the programme.
The multinational F-35 programme, which includes the United States and other countries such as the United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea, has what GAO called a unique parts management system. All programme participants worldwide have access to a global pool of spare parts – from engines, tyres, landing gear and support equipment to bolts and screws – that belong to the US Department of Defence until the part is fitted to the fighter jet.
Previously, it was reported more than once about problems haunting the most advanced US multirole fighter to date, primarily of a technical nature.
The other day it became known that the manufacturer Lockheed Martin may request the US government to spend $38 billion over ten years to repair engines for the Thirty-fifth.
These battle machines are considered to be the most expensive weapons in the world – the cost of one F-35 is estimated from $100 million up to $125 million depending on modification.