Pentagon Cannot Account for 17,000 F-35 Parts Worth $1.3 Billion, GAO Finds

The Pentagon cannot account for more than 17,000 spare parts for the F-35 fighter jet, worth at least $1.3 billion, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report, published Monday, November 9, 2026, says inaccurate and incomplete records leave the Defense Department unable to determine exactly how many F-35 components it owns, where they are, or what they are worth — weakening its ability to detect fraud, waste or theft across the world's most expensive weapons program.

The Short Answer

As of March 2026, about 17,000 F-35 parts undergoing maintenance or repair, worth about $1.3 billion, had never been entered into the Pentagon's official inventory system. Defense officials told the GAO the true value could be as high as $2.5 billion once missing cost data, transportation and overheads are counted. The GAO concluded the records "are not reliable for asset accountability or financial reporting" and made four recommendations, all of which the Pentagon accepted.

A $31 Billion Pool Nobody Can Fully See

The F-35 program shares a single global pool of spare parts — everything from engines and tires to bolts, screws and support equipment — among the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, seven international partners and foreign military sales customers. The Defense Department estimates that pool at about 26 million parts worth roughly $31 billion, held at more than 700 contractor- and government-managed facilities around the world. The parts are owned by the government, but the GAO found the department "does not maintain complete records" of them.

At the center of the problem is the program's official property system, the Enterprise Logistics Management System, or ELMS. The GAO found that ELMS does not interface with the separate property-management systems run by the two prime contractors, Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney, so it cannot capture changes in real time when a part is moved, used or repaired. Contractors submit inventory data only quarterly, meaning some records can be more than three months out of date before anyone reviews them. In a December 2025 contractor data submission, only 29 percent of part records contained serial numbers, and only 43 percent contained National Stock Numbers.

Years of Warnings, Little Progress

The GAO has flagged this gap before — first in 2022 — and as of August 2026 it still had not been fixed. Physical inventories have not closed the gap either: the program office has spent at least $17 million on physical counts since fiscal year 2020, yet its fiscal 2025 counts still did not capture all F-35 parts or verify that recorded parts were physically present.

Older losses remain unresolved as well. More than 1 million parts worth over $85 million that a prime contractor lost between May 2018 and October 2022 — losses the GAO first reported in 2023 — were still unaccounted for as of March 2026. Under a one-time bulk reporting process authorized in June 2025, the prime contractor had submitted about $28 million in F-35 part losses incurred from 2012 through 2025. The GAO warned bluntly: unless the program office implements procedures for monitoring losses, it "will not know the full extent of losses of F-35 parts, and its ability to mitigate losses in the future will be decreased, reducing its ability to detect fraud, waste, or theft." For more on Pentagon oversight challenges, see our coverage of the senior U.S. Army officer arrested in Britain on suspicion of spying for Russia.

The Hong Kong Diversion — and What the Report Does Not Say

The report lands a few months after a separate revelation: an intermediary company moving F-35 spare parts for Lockheed Martin sent components from Australia to Hong Kong instead of their intended destination in the United States, and the Pentagon later said a number of those spares were missing, with no clarity on how they ended up in China or where they are now. The GAO did not tie its inventory findings to that September diversion — but the report's portrait of a system that cannot track parts in real time explains why such a diversion could go undetected for so long. You can follow the latest defense and Pentagon oversight news as the inventory effort continues.

What Happens Next

The GAO's report, GAO-27-108713, "F-35 Program: DOD Needs to Strengthen Oversight of Tens of Billions of Dollars in Parts," makes four recommendations: tighter procedures for monitoring part losses, and clearer procedures, training and accountability for the staff who track government-owned property. The Defense Department agreed with all four. The Defense Contract Audit Agency is now working with the F-35 Joint Program Office to establish an auditable baseline of parts, with the first full inventory targeted for completion in March 2027.

Even the $31 billion headline figure may be understated. Program financial officials told the GAO that certain parts are either excluded from the overall total or absent from records altogether — meaning the true scale of the inventory, and of the gap in it, is still unknown.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did the GAO report find about F-35 parts?

The GAO found that as of March 2026, about 17,000 F-35 parts in maintenance or repair, worth about $1.3 billion, had not been entered into the program's official inventory system. Officials told the GAO the value could be as high as $2.5 billion once missing cost data and overheads are counted.

How big is the F-35 spare parts inventory?

The program holds about 26 million parts worth about $31 billion at more than 700 contractor- and government-managed facilities worldwide. The parts are shared among the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, seven international partners and foreign military sales customers — and the GAO says even the $31 billion figure may be understated.

Why can't the Pentagon track the parts?

The official inventory system, ELMS, does not connect to the separate property systems of prime contractors Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, so it cannot see changes in real time. Contractors report data only quarterly, and in a December 2025 submission only 29 percent of part records had serial numbers.

Are the parts actually lost or stolen?

The report does not say the parts are stolen. It says they are unrecorded — in maintenance or repair somewhere in the supply chain but invisible to the official record system. The GAO warned that without better monitoring, the Pentagon cannot know the full extent of losses or reliably detect fraud, waste or theft.

What about the F-35 parts sent to Hong Kong?

Months before the report, an intermediary shipped F-35 components from Australia to Hong Kong instead of the United States, and the Pentagon said some spares were missing. The GAO did not tie its tracking findings to that incident, but the report describes the same blind spots that could let a diversion go undetected.

What happens next?

The Pentagon accepted all four of the GAO's recommendations. The Defense Contract Audit Agency is working with the F-35 Joint Program Office on the first full inventory of F-35 parts, targeted for completion in March 2027.

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