F-35 Aircraft Sustainment: DoD Needs to Address Substantial Supply Chain Challenges

The Government Accountability Office raises concerns about the cost and management of the F-35’s supply chain. Program officials created a unique system for purchasing and distributing spare parts for the F-35 program. Rather than the government directly purchasing replacement parts, the services and international partners pay for access to a global pool of F-35 parts managed by Lockheed Martin. This scheme hasn’t worked well in practice, as shortages of parts have crippled flight operations for the fleet. Limited capacity to repair broken parts also plagues the program, as a backlog of more than 4,300 parts sit in repair depots around the world.