Up to 550 F-35s to require refits after reliability fails, says US

As many as 550 of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters require refits including two dozen already handed to Australia.

An Australian F-35A aircraft.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter continues to be plagued by quality and reliability problems, with as many as 550 of the jets to require refits, including two dozen already handed to Australia.

The US Government Accountability Office warned in a report this week that JSF suppliers were failing to “meet predefined design standards” in thousands of manufacturing processes, and that already-built aircraft “do not meet the program’s reliability and maintainability goals”.

In a finding at odds with Donald Trump’s threat to end offshore manufacturing of JSF parts, the report also warned finding new suppliers would “compound production risks”.

While Turkey was dumped from the program in July last year after acquiring a Russian-made air defence system, the country will continue to supply JSF parts until some time in 2022 “to avoid disruptions to aircraft deliveries and additional cost”.

The GAO said 870 “open deficiencies” with the aircraft had been identified as of December, including nine “category one” problems that could “jeopardise safety (or) security”. It found only 30 per cent of more than 10,000 “critical processes” identified in the assembly phase “are currently able to produce a product within predefined design standards”.

“Due to the concurrency of testing and production, according to an F-35 program official, as many as 550 aircraft delivered through 2020 will need retrofits to fix deficiencies and design issues found during testing,” the GAO said.

Lockheed Martin has so far delivered 24 of 72 F-35A Lightning II aircraft to the Australian Defence Force, at a cost of about $140m each.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Marcus Hellyer said US auditors continued to identify deficiencies with the aircraft, but it was rating well in exercises and had been used operationally by Israel.

“We've had senior US officers testify to congress saying in exercises like Red Flag up in Alaska that it is scoring 20:1 kill rates and completing missions you just couldn't conceive of doing with traditional 4th generation aircraft,” Dr Hellyer said.

However, a six-year delay in developing the aircraft had given potential adversaries time to catch up on fifth-generation fighter technology.