Pentagon Requests $13.7B to Address F‑35 Readiness Decline
The U.S. Department of Defense’s F‑35 program office has submitted a funding request to Congress for an additional $13.7 billion covering fiscal years through 2031. The request, disclosed in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on 13 June 2026, is intended to reverse a marked decline in aircraft readiness.
Readiness metrics show the mission‑capable (MC) rate for the F‑35 fleet fell from 67 % in fiscal year 2021 to 44 % in fiscal year 2025. The full‑mission‑capable (FMC) rate dropped from 38 % to 25 % over the same period, indicating fewer aircraft can perform all assigned missions.
More than 50 % of the $13.7 billion request is earmarked for spare‑parts procurement, which the GAO identified as a primary bottleneck to improving MC and FMC rates. The Pentagon has already paid contractors hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives since 2020 to boost readiness, but the GAO found those incentives ineffective.
The report projects that each service branch—Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps—will confront an annual affordability gap exceeding $1 billion between the projected cost of sustaining the F‑35 fleet and the services’ mid‑2030s budget targets.
Under the new “Global Support Solution Reset” strategy, the program office will depend on the private sector to supply more than $7 billion in additional parts and related material. However, the GAO notes persistent capacity constraints for several critical components, raising risk to the achievement of the revised readiness goals.
Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT), the primary contractor for the F‑35, is highlighted as a key supplier, with the program’s reliance on its production and supply chain underscored throughout the report.