{"id":273644,"date":"2023-09-24T07:02:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T07:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=273644"},"modified":"2023-09-25T07:05:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T07:05:34","slug":"f-35-fighter-jets-are-only-mission-capable-55-of-the-time-new-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=273644","title":{"rendered":"F-35 fighter jets are only ‘mission capable’ 55% of the time, new report says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Strickler \u2013 NBC News Sept 21, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Two U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters complete vertical landings aboard the USS Wasp (LHD-1) during operational testing May 18, 2015. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Days after a $100 million F-35B <\/a>crashed in rural South Carolina<\/a>, a government watchdog report released Thursday highlights ongoing maintenance delays showing F-35 fighter jets are \u201cmission capable\u201d only 55% of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the aircraft can only perform 55% of the time and the goal is 85 to 90% of the time, taxpayers are not getting their money\u2019s worth,\u201d said Diana Maurer, who authored the report for the Government Accountability Office.<\/p>\n

The F-35 program, led by military contractor Lockheed Martin, is one of the Defense Department\u2019s most expensive, costing taxpayers a total of $1.7 trillion over its lifespan.<\/p>\n

Much of the program\u2019s expense \u2014 $1.3 trillion \u2014\u00a0is the cost of maintaining and operating the fighter jets, the GAO report said.<\/p>\n

Maurer said the fighter jet\u2019s overall sustainment \u201crests entirely on Lockheed Martin and the sub-contractors it hires.\u201d While that is not unique to the F-35, the GAO found that the contractor-led approach can cause delays.<\/p>\n

For example, the report says the GAO spoke to military maintenance staff members at three locations who said they were not allowed to look up spare part numbers for the F-35 because the proprietary database was controlled by Lockheed, the prime contractor. \u201cNot having ready access to part numbers hinders the repair of the aircraft because it delays the ordering and receipt of needed parts,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Maintenance on components for the F-35<\/a> fighter jets is behind, leaving more than 10,000 components in the queue waiting to be repaired, the report said.<\/p>\n

The F-35 is used by the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy. Previous maintenance concerns have led to a push for the Pentagon to take over management of F-35 maintenance, but the shift is not scheduled to occur until late 2027, the report said.<\/p>\n

Congress mandated the GAO review as part of last year\u2019s defense bill after ongoing maintenance challenges were identified.<\/p>\n

The GAO made seven recommendations to address maintenance delays, and the Pentagon concurred with all of them, the report said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Lockheed Martin said, “We stand ready to partner with the government as plans are created for the future of F-35 sustainment ensuring mission readiness and enabling deterrence.”<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problems continue to plague what is supposed to be the West\u2019s mainstay fighter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273672,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273644\/revisions\/273672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}