Luke Air Force Base in the West Valley recently converted a squadron within the Air Force’s largest fighter group into a fifth unit of F-35 jets.
A new report by the Government Accountability Office says the Defense Department plans to spend roughly $1.7 trillion on about 2,500 F-35 aircraft in the coming decades.
Key to the price tag, according to Congress’s watchdog, are costly maintenance issues that hurt the fighter jet’s readiness.
The rate of the F-35 fleet being able to do one of its missions in March was reportedly far below goals.
The program was also behind on setting up depots to do complex repairs, had poor equipment to fix F-35s and was hit with supply delays.
The Defense Department agreed with all recommendations and says it has a way to implement them.
The report came days after authorities spent a day searching for an F-35, which was found about 60 miles from where the pilot ejected in South Carolina.
