PARTS WENT TO HONG KONG BY ACCIDENT
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles confirmed that F-35 parts to be repaired in the US were mistakenly diverted to Hong Kong. The Pentagon is investigating how the incident happened while trying to get the parts back. Marles said that they had no information that there was sensitive technology in the lost shipment.
1 MILLION TRACKS RELEASED
GAO (US Government Accountability Office) determined that in 2023, an F-35 prime contractor recorded more than 1 million parts as missing since 2018, their value exceeding $85 million. It was revealed that the Pentagon’s F-35 Program Office only investigated less than 2 percent of the cases. It was announced that the losses included the engine, landing gear and various spare parts.
COULD NOT SEE THE CONGRESS COST TABLE
GAO determined that the Pentagon did not fully disclose to Congress the cost increases in the Block 4 modernization of the F-35. The program, which was initially calculated as 10.6 billion dollars, increased to 16.5 billion dollars. According to the GAO, the reporting method did not indicate which increase was due to new features and which to existing systems.
PLANES ARE 238 DAYS LATE
According to the GAO, F-35 deliveries in 2024 are delayed by an average of 238 days. Despite this, the Pentagon paid Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives to improve delivery and performance in previous years. GAO criticized the continuation of these payments while the delays continued and recommended an investigation, but the Armed Services Committee of Congress did not open an investigation.
