GAO: Tilsvarende Riksrevisjonen
Pentagon can’t monitor, keep track of F-35 spare
parts, GAO finds
By
DOUG G. WARE
STARS AND STRIPES • May
23, 2023
Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs and
Israeli Air Force F-35I Adirs fly in formation during exercise Enduring
Lightning III over Israel in October 2020. (Duncan Bevan/U.S. Air Force)
WASHINGTON — The
Pentagon isn’t keeping track of tens of thousands of spare parts for F-35
fighter jets worth millions of dollars because it was unclear who is
responsible for doing it, according to a congressional audit released Tuesday.
The U.S. military
and many nations such as Israel and Japan have been flying the F-35 Lightning
II for several years, which creates a need for various parts to be kept at
locations in many countries around the globe. The Pentagon maintains a global
pool of spare parts that ally countries can tap into when needed. However,
there is no Defense Department system to monitor those inventories and keep
track of the parts, according to the Government Accountability Office report.
The main reason
that no accountability system exists for spare parts in the global pool is
because it was never expected the U.S. military would own parts for F-35s
purchased by other countries.
“[Defense
Department] initially did not intend to own the F-35 assets, which include the
global spares pool and support equipment, special tooling and special test
equipment,” the 35-page GAO report states. “Because DOD did not develop a plan
to address this … the prime contractors continued to maintain accountability.”
The prime
contractors are the F-35’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and the company that
produces its engines, Pratt & Whitney.
Over time, the
inventory process became murkier because the spare parts in the global pool
ended up in different inventory systems at Lockheed Martin and Pratt &
Whitney -- and were stored at dozens of locations that were not owned by the
U.S. government or either company, according to the report.
The result is a
cloudy picture of how many spare parts are in the pool, how many have been lost
or misplaced, what was paid for them and how much they’re worth, the report
states.
“The F-35 Joint
Program Office was unable to provide the cost, total quantity and locations of
spare parts in the global spares pool, and continues to rely on the prime
contractors’ records for this information,” according to the GAO report.
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