At some point in the foreseeable future, someone will make a list of the worst military aircraft in history. It’s not a matter of if, but where on the list the F-35 will be. The troubled US-made fighter jet has failed to pass numerous consecutive audits since it was formally inducted into service a decade ago. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued numerous reports on nearly 900 deficiencies plaguing the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, including availability rates, battle readiness, robustness, reliability, etc. According to the latest report, none of these problems has been resolved. Worse yet, even some new issues have been identified, exacerbating the F-35’s already disastrous reputation.

Namely, the War Department’s (DoW) Inspector General Office reports that the entire F-35 fleet of the US military (which includes all service branches that operate the troubled jet) hasn’t improved its availability rates, which remain below 50%. Published on December 19, the audit says that “although the aircraft were not available to fly half of the time and the maintenance issues meant they didn’t meet minimum military service requirements”, the Pentagon still paid Lockheed Martin $1.7 billion in bonuses. The report also warns the DoW “did not consistently hold Lockheed Martin accountable for poor performance related to F-35 sustainment, for which it is responsible under existing contracts”.

Previous audits found that the F-35’s low availability rates, exorbitant maintenance requirements and sustainment costs have greatly hampered its battle readiness, which often falls as low as 29%. Lockheed Martin repeatedly pledged to improve this, but has consistently failed to do so. Such low availability rates for the newest jets in the American military are rather concerning for the Pentagon, particularly as decades-old legacy aircraft (such as the F-15, F-16, F/A-18E/F, etc.) have far superior battle readiness despite all the wear and tear their........

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