The US F-35 stealth fighter fleet has a readiness problem that 6 years and over $12 billion haven't fixed, watchdog finds

• F-35 stealth fighter jets have been failing to meet mission-capable rates, a watchdog reports.
• This has been the case for six years despite over $12 billion on operations and maintenance, the GAO found.
• A defense official said the program and DoD must continue working to improve combat readiness.

The US military's F-35 stealth fighters have failed to meet readiness goals for six years straight, despite the over $12 billion spent on operations and maintenance, according to a government watchdog report.

The new report published Monday comes as the US military continues its efforts to make the advanced fifth-generation fighter jet manufactured by Lockheed Martin a quarterback for American combat power.

For its report on US tactical aviation readiness, the Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog agency, analyzed how well US aircraft met their desired mission-capable rates in fiscal years 2018 through 2023.

An aircraft's mission-capable rate is the percentage of total time when the plane can fly and perform at least one mission. Per the GAO, the mission-capable rates measure the health and readiness of a military aircraft fleet for a potential conflict.

The GAO said the F-35A, the fighter variant used by the US Air Force, "did not meet its mission capable goals in any of the years we reviewed." The GAO also found the F-35B and F-35C variants, used by the Marine Corps and Navy, failed to meet their goals over all six years as well.

That's despite over $12 billion spent on operations and maintenance and efforts to improve the overall readiness of the F-35.

Other aircraft that failed to meet their goals for all six years included the F-22 Raptor, EA-18G Growler, F/A-18 A-D Hornets, AV-8B Harrier, and F-15E Strike Eagle. The F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, F-16D, F-15D and A-10 Warthog only met their goals one year, while the F-16C and F-15C hit it three years out of six.

The GAO said that "none of the 15 tactical aircraft variants met their mission capable goals in fiscal year 2023."

The watchdog report said that for the F-35, $7.46 billion for the Air Force, $2.75 billion for the Marine Corps, and $1.87 billion for the Navy was spent on operations and maintenance, with yearly spending in this area growing substantially between 2018 and 2023 and services in some cases using more money than was initially requested.

In response to the GAO report, Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, director and program executive officer of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told Business Insider that "the F-35 is proven in combat and performing for 14 military services around the world today."

"As the cornerstone of the future fighter fleet," he said, "the F-35 enables the warfighter to dominate the skies in the most challenging combat environments against the world's most capable adversaries."

Schmidt said that his office is working with the Pentagon and industry partners to improve the mission-capable rates, noting that when spare parts and repair materials are available, rates tend to be higher.

"With this in mind, I am not satisfied with our readiness today — and our team is doing everything in its power to drive availability to levels our users expect," he said.

The F-35 was built as a low-observable joint strike fighter able to engage in ground-attack, maritime-strike, and air-combat missions and also coordinate American firepower as a high-end networked sensor. Coming in three variants, there is the F-35A with a cannon, the short takeoff/vertical landing F-35B, and carrier-based F-35C. A number of US allies and partners operate variants of the jet.

But the jet has been mired with ballooning costs and readiness problems for years, with a GAO report earlier this year revealing that the availability of the aircraft has dropped as the full life-cycle of the F-35 has grown, topping $2 trillion.