Pentagon blocks review of F-35 fighter jet project for first time in over 20 years

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Defence Department officials concluded its yearly assessment of the US$1.6 trillion programme contained Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) – which meant none of the report could be released to the public.

The report has offered a key window into the world’s costliest and most advanced defence programme. But this time, only the title of the June 25 assessment is public: “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Update on Production and Modernisation Efforts.”

The “GAO has covered the F-35 acquisition annually since Congress mandated reviews beginning in 2005”, said Jon Ludwigson, a director in the agency’s contracting and national security acquisitions office, who supervised the creation of the report.

“This is the first year that any of our acquisition reviews has been determined to contain CUI” and be restricted from public release, he said.

The censored report was still provided to the lawmakers on Congress’s four defence committees and continued “on our path of providing an update to the defence committees on the progress of F-35 modernisation”.