F-35’s $17 Billion Diagnostic System Rife With Flaws, GAO Says
- Trouble with Lockheed system could hamper readiness: watchdog
- Pentagon plans to deploy a replacement system by 2022
Maintenance crews prepare a Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 jet in Utah.
Photographer: George Frey/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A $17 billion Lockheed Martin Corp. system used since 2009 to monitor F-35 fighter jets for repairs, parts replacement and general maintenance is rife with flaws, sometimes forcing personnel to spend hours entering data by hand, according to congressional auditors.
Maintenance crews at one of five U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps bases that were reviewed “estimated they spend an average of 5,000 to 10,000 hours per year manually tracking information that should be automatically and accurately captured” by Lockheed’s system, the Government Accountability Office said in a report obtained by Bloomberg News.