This year, half the fleet of fifth-generation F-35 fighters in U.S. service was grounded due to various problems. Their maintenance by the manufacturer company Lockheed Martin was blamed for this.
Such a conclusion was reached in a Pentagon audit regarding oversight of contract execution for these aircraft. It's stated that no questions arose for the contractor despite constant failures.
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The inspection found that although half the required time F-35s couldn't take to the air, and their maintenance didn't meet requirements. Despite all this, the American defense department paid Lockheed Martin $1.7 billion for corresponding services.
At the same time, no corrections were made due to economic situation and existing problems. No additional checks were conducted on service execution status and readiness under contract terms, or availability of all necessary components.
Lockheed Martin says they know about everything and are already working on eliminating root causes of fleet downtime. Among everything, procurement of additional volumes of spare parts needed for maintenance is being organized.
However, the current discovery is not a rare, but another case with problems in the F-35 program, and was also mentioned earlier. Constant delays in delivering new aircraft, postponement of modernization due to lack of necessary systems, and significant exceeding of planned budgets have been haunting fifth-generation fighters for years.
Interestingly, this situation develops not because of the aircraft's quality itself, but because of everything else around it. So the U.S. is forced, despite all nuances, to continue purchasing F-35s, postponing and simplifying its own plans to get results.
Currently, it's important for the Pentagon that it can organize its work, optimize processes around large-scale procurement, and create reserve for independently ensuring military combat readiness. However, implementing this is clearly not simple, considering the emergence of such huge projects as Trumps battleship.
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