“The U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General said Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets were poorly maintained, leaving the fleet of state-of-the-art stealth aircraft only able to perform missions 50 percent of the time.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Bloomberg
Details: According to the audit, the F-35’s average readiness ratio during fiscal year 2024 was only half of the required level.
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The main reason for the low numbers is that the Pentagon “did not hold Lockheed Martin accountable for unsatisfactory performance related to the maintenance of the F-35.”
The report noted that the maintenance performed by the company often did not meet even “minimum technical requirements.” Despite this, the US Department of Defense paid Lockheed Martin $1.7 billion without any economic adjustments or penalties.
A representative of Lockheed Martin responded by saying that the company is already working on fixing the situation.
“At the beginning of the year, we developed a plan to eliminate the root causes of problems with the operational readiness of the F-35,” the company’s representative said in a statement.
The company specified that this plan involves purchasing additional spare parts and improving “maintenance practices.”
Lockheed also noted that the new service contract creates incentives for the manufacturer to improve the “combat readiness of the fleet.”
The $2 trillion F-35 program is the most expensive procurement in Pentagon history.
In recent years, the project has faced numerous problems, including manufacturing defects, engine malfunctions, and low reliability of the equipment.
In June, the U.S. Air Force was forced to halve its 2026 F-35 order due to significant increases in the cost of avionics upgrades.
In September, the U.S. Accountability Office released a report criticizing the Pentagon for paying Lockheed bonuses for meeting deadlines, even though the company was delivering planes two months late and many of the planes had technical defects.
US President Donald Trump has also increased pressure on key defense contractors to invest in innovation rather than spend on stock buybacks and top management bonuses.
What preceded:
- On December 22, US President Donald Trump announced the launch of a large-scale program to update the Naval Forces called “Golden Fleet”. The plan envisages the construction of a series of the latest battleships of the “Trump” class, equipped with hypersonic weapons, lasers and nuclear warheads.