Pentagon Under Scrutiny Over F-35 Jet Parts Worth $1.3B

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The program for the advanced F-35 fighter jet has been plagued by delays, ballooning costs and software issues.

The Pentagon has no electronic record of roughly $1.3 billion in parts for F-35 advanced fighter jets, according to the Congressional watchdog.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has not logged around 17,000 parts in its Enterprise Logistics Management System, which records property and accounts for the F-35 program, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released earlier this month.

These parts may be waiting for repairs, undergoing maintenance or being transported to or from facilities where they could be fixed, a spokesperson for the GAO told Newsweek.

When contacted by Newsweek the Pentagon referred to comments it gave to the GAO in which the DOD said it concurred with all of the watchdog's recommendations.

The F-35 is the only fifth-generation fighter aircraft available to Western militaries beyond the U.S., and many of the 20 nations operating or buying F-35s are NATO members. The U.S. also flies another fifth-generation aircraft, the F-22 Raptor.

Fifth-generation jets are harder to detect, have more advanced avionics and are more equipped to take out enemy air defenses than fourth-generation aircraft, which are still widely used.

There are three main variants of F-35s, including one certified to carry American B61-12 gravity bombs and another capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings. Israel operates a customized F-35 model.

The F-35 is the most expensive weapon system in Pentagon history, with the program estimated to cost more than $1.9 trillion over its lifetime. The U.S. has more than 800 F-35s, according to GAO numbers.

"The approximately $1.3 billion involved represents a significant amount of government property that was not recorded and adequately supported in DOD’s (the Department of Defense's) accountable property system," the GAO representative told Newsweek.

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