Pentagon ‘struggles to account for’ $31 billion in missing F-35 aircraft parts, weeks after shipment was swiped by China

The Pentagon is grappling with the unprecedented challenge of accounting for an estimated $31 billion worth of 26 million F-35 warfighter parts, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis. This revelation emerged just weeks after a classified shipment of these crucial components was allegedly intercepted by China through Hong Kong, raising concerns about the inventory management system's effectiveness.

The GAO has criticized the current inventory system as "outdated, inaccurate, and incomplete," highlighting the need for urgent reforms. Despite multiple reports from the GAO since 2019, the Department of Defense (DOD) has made minimal progress in implementing past recommendations, such as conducting periodic physical inventories of F-35 parts.

Furthermore, there is no reliable process for verifying data from prime contractors, leading to potential inaccuracies and incompleteness. Currently, an estimated 1 million parts, valued at over $85 million, are lost or missing, while about 17,000 parts sent for repair, totaling up to $42.5 billion, remain untracked. The Pentagon is actively working on a "live connection" inventory system to bridge the inventory software of the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) with that of prime contractors, aiming to address previous system gaps and ensure seamless accountability of F-35 spare parts.