F-35: the Pentagon loses track of spare parts worth billions – what the GAO report found on 26 million components

The Pentagon’s records on F-35 spare parts do not give a reliable picture of what exists, where it is and how much it is worth. That is the main conclusion of a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), released on Monday, November 9. The auditors describe the data on about 26 million components, with a total value of about $31 billion, as outdated, inaccurate and incomplete.

The inventory is spread across more than 700 facilities. About 30% of the parts are at contractor sites and 70% at government facilities. The programme’s prime contractors are Lockheed Martin for the aircraft and Pratt & Whitney for the engine.

The most striking finding concerns the parts in maintenance or repair. By March 2026 about 17,000 such pieces, worth around $1.3 billion, had not been entered in ELMS, the system with which the Pentagon tracks its property. Department officials told the auditors the amount may reach $2.5 billion. In a December 2025 file only 29% of entries had a serial number and 43% an NSN code, while almost 6% showed an acquisition cost of up to one cent.

Losses without tracking

The audit returns to a problem the GAO had already identified in 2023. From May 2018 to October 2022, one of the main contractors lost more than a million parts, worth over $85 million. For 940,000 of them, over $66 million, no report had been filed to determine who bears responsibility. In March 2026 the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) still did not know what had become of them. The same contractor has reported losses of about $28 million for 2012-2025, of which DCMA, the defence contract oversight agency, charged the contractor about $6 million.

Physical inventories do not solve the issue either. Since fiscal year 2020 the JPO has spent at least $17 million on inventories, but the 2025 inventory was based on a contractor property management system that DCMA had judged unacceptable. A full count of all stock has never been done. The first is scheduled for March 2027.

The issue is tied to the accounts of the entire Pentagon, which has failed all eight of its full financial audits (2018-2025). The F-35 has been recorded as a material weakness since 2019, and the law requires a clean auditor’s opinion by December 31, 2028. The programme’s total lifetime cost is estimated at more than $1.9 trillion, of which about $1.4 trillion is for operations and support, while the Pentagon discusses a multi-year agreement with Lockheed Martin for 850 American F-35s.

The Pentagon accepted all four of the GAO’s recommendations, which call for tracking of losses and specific guidance and training for the staff accountable for F-35 property.

Why it matters for Greece

This inventory also serves foreign users. Seven partner countries and 12 more customers through FMS sales take part in the programme, a category that includes Greece. The Hellenic Air Force is awaiting its own F-35As, and the Meteor missile’s integration on the aircraft is of particular interest to it, while Mr Dendias has already asked the U.S. for the most modern weapons for the aircraft.