- F-35 fighter jets have failed to meet mission-capable standards, a watchdog reports.
- That’s been the case for six years, despite more than $12 billion in operations and maintenance, the GAO found.
- A defense official said the program and DoD must continue to work to improve combat readiness.
The U.S. military’s F-35 stealth fighters have failed to meet readiness goals for six consecutive years despite more than $12 billion spent on operations and maintenance, according to a government watchdog report.
The new report released Monday comes as the U.S. military continues its efforts to make the advanced fifth-generation fighter jet made by Lockheed Martin a centerpiece for U.S. combat power.
For its report on U.S. tactical aviation readiness, the Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional oversight agency, analyzed how well U.S. aircraft met their desired mission-capable rates in fiscal years 2018 through 2023.
An aircraft’s mission capability rate is the percentage of total time that the aircraft can fly and perform at least one mission. According to the GAO, mission-capable ratings measure the health and readiness of a military aircraft fleet for a potential conflict.
The GAO said the F-35A, the fighter variant used by the US Air Force, “did not meet its mission capability objectives in any of the years we reviewed.” The GAO also found that the F-35B and F-35C variants, used by the Marine Corps and Navy, also failed to meet their goals over six years.
This is despite over $12 billion spent on operations and maintenance and efforts to improve the overall readiness of the F-35.
Other aircraft that failed to meet their goals for all six years included the F-22 Raptor, EA-18G Growler, F/A-18 AD Hornets, AV-8B Harrier and F-15E Strike Eagle. The F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, F-16D, F-15D and A-10 Warthog hit their goals in just one year, while the F-16C and F-15C hit it three years out of six.
The GAO report found that all three variants failed to meet their mission-capable targets from 2018 to 2023. UK Ministry of Defense photo
The GAO said that “none of the 15 tactical aircraft variants met their mission-capable targets in fiscal year 2023.”
The watchdog’s report said that for the F-35, $7.46 billion for the Air Force, $2.75 billion for the Marine Corps and $1.87 billion for the Navy were spent on operations and maintenance, with annual spending in this area increasing significantly between 2018 and 2023. .and services in some cases using more money than originally requested.
In response to the GAO report, Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, F-35 Joint Program Office program director and executive officer, told Business Insider that “the F-35 is combat and performance proven for 14 military services worldwide the world today”.
“As the cornerstone of the future fighter fleet,” he said, “the F-35 enables the fighter to dominate the skies in the most challenging combat environments against the world’s most capable adversaries.”
Schmidt said his office is working with the Pentagon and industry partners to improve mission-capable rates, noting that when spare parts and repair materials are available, rates tend to be higher.
“With that in mind, I’m not satisfied with our availability today — and our team is doing everything in its power to increase availability to the levels our users expect,” he said.
The F-35 is used by a number of US allies and partners, including Israel and Japan. Air Force Master Sgt. Andrew Sinclair
The F-35 was built as a low-surveillance joint strike fighter capable of engaging in ground attack, naval attack and air combat missions and also coordinating US firepower as a high-level network sensor . Coming in three variants, there is the single-cannon F-35A, the short takeoff/vertical landing F-35B and the carrier-based F-35C. A number of US allies and partners operate variants of the aircraft.
But the plane has been mired in flying costs and readiness problems for years, with a GAO report earlier this year finding that the plane’s availability has declined as the F-35’s full life cycle has grown. reaching $2 trillion.