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F-35 Aircraft Sustainment: DOD Faces Challenges in Sustaining a Growing Fleet

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Nov. 13, 2019
Release Date Nov. 13, 2019
Report No. GAO-20-234T
Summary:

The F-35 fighter plays a key role in U.S. defense strategy. As of October, the United States and international partners had fielded more than 435 of an expected 3,300 aircraft.

We testified that DOD faces challenges keeping the growing fleet ready to perform its mission, largely due to insufficient planning. Challenges include

Spare parts shortages: F-35s were unable to fly about 30% of the time due to a lack of spare parts from May-November 2018

Poor performance of the information technology system used to sustain the aircraft: It requires manual workarounds and has data inaccuracies

We have 21 open recommendations to address these issues.

A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B aboard the U.S.S. America

Military aircraft landing on an aircraft carrier in the ocean

Military aircraft landing on an aircraft carrier in the ocean

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