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F-35 Sustainment Woes Hurting Readiness, GAO Says

By Marc Selinger

Thursday, October 26th, 2017

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F-35 Sustainment Woes Hurting Readiness, GAO Says

Maintenance staff inspect one of the 10 Luke AFB F-35s sent to Nellis AFB for a training deployment, April 15, 2015. Photo: U.S. Air Force.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s new fleet of F-35 Lightning IIs is experiencing spare parts shortages and other sustainment problems that are hurting the readiness of the fighter jets, according to a report released Oct. 26 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)."Squadron officials at multiple F-35 locations that we visited expressed enthusiasm for the unique capabilities of the aircraft, such as the increased situational awareness that the F-35 provides pilots relative to legacy aircraft and the relative ease with which pilots…

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