Pentagon cannot account for $85m in F-35 parts, new report finds

The government watchdog has once again shone a spotlight on deficiencies in tracking the vast, geographically dispersed US-stockpiled F-35 components. At least $85 million of parts remain lost, with the true tally unknowable under the current system.

These lost components are not necessarily stolen. Many may be secure but misplaced in warehouses; others may be double-counted; some may have been scrapped without proper records. By virtue of being unaccounted for, it is impossible to know.

$85 million in F-35 components remains lost

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published this week finds that the US DoD is struggling to account for the parts of the F-35 programme. It says the records of the F-35 parts are “outdated, inaccurate, and incomplete.”

As of March 2026, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) still did not know the status of lost F-35 parts worth over $85 million. These parts were highlighted by the GAO in a 2023 report.

For context, $85 million is comparable to the flyaway cost of a new F-35A.

Without implementing procedures for monitoring losses, the JPO will not be able to know the full extent of lost F-35 components. This risks reducing its ability to mitigate concerns such as waste, theft, and fraud.

Earlier this year, a UPS freighter carrying some Australian F-35 components, including a canopy, was diverted to Hong Kong, where the parts disappeared. This would appear to be stemming from a separate set of issues than the GAO is highlighting with the JPO.

JPO needs a new management system for tracking F-35 parts

The watchdog found that the DoD is not maintaining complete records of some government-owned 26 million parts. These are valued at around $31 billion and held by over 700 contractor- and government-managed facilities around the world.

A warning is: “Without accurate data in its APSR and properly executed inventory procedures for F-35 parts, DOD management will not have the information it needs to support warfighter readiness and reliable financial reporting.”

A mature, fully functioning property accountability programme needs to be established by the JPO to ensure its oversight of asset accountability.

The GAO does acknowledge that the DoD is taking some steps, including F-35 parts on its financial statements and developing procedures to value parts with missing cost information.

Far from unique among fighter jets

It should be stressed that the F-35 is far from unique when it comes to missing parts, or other headline-grabbing issues like delays and cost overruns.

As the world’s premier fighter programme and one expected to cost the DoD more than $1.9 trillion over its life cycle, the effort attracts an extraordinary amount of popular attention and reporting.

One area where the programme is reasonably unique is in its vast scale and its massive geographical footprint. The DoD has to station and maintain its fleet in numerous bases and aircraft carriers around the world.

Discussion of F-35 issues is partially enabled by the considerable openness in the programme, with the type of information contained in the GAO report likely classified for equivalent programmes in countries like China and Russia.

Components almost certainly get lost for programmes like the Eurofighter, Rafale, Gripen, and others, but the data is lacking, which frustrates any meaningful comparison.