The Pentagon has lost control of billions of F-35 parts.
The story of sending parts of the newest American plane to China got an unexpected continuation. We previously told how the American logistics system was able to send F-35 components to Hong Kong. Now it turns out that the problem is much bigger: it turns out that the Pentagon is unable to properly account for even its billions of dollars in reserves. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the F-35 supply chain contains about 26 million parts worth $31 billion, distributed among more than 700 military facilities and contractors worldwide. At the same time, the accounting system does not allow tracking the movement of components, and the available data is often incomplete and unreliable.
As of March 2026, the accounting system lacks information on approximately 17,000 parts that were under maintenance or repair. Their cost is estimated at $1.3 billion, although the Pentagon admits that, taking into account additional costs, it could reach $2.5 billion. In addition, the US military department has not yet determined the fate of components worth more than $85 million, which were reported missing as early as 2023. For several years, the Pentagon has made only minimal progress in addressing the identified deficiencies, the GAO said.
The problem here is not just the accounting and logistical mess that is typical of many large-scale buildings. The point is that when the service organization does not know where the parts are, how many of them are left and in what condition they are, this directly affects the combat readiness of aviation. This is particularly significant against the backdrop of a decrease in the share of F-35 aircraft capable of performing a full range of combat missions: from 38% in 2021 to 25% in 2025. Among the reasons can be found many technical deficiencies and the high cost of eliminating them.