After a US watchdog report earlier this week said that the American fleet of F-35 stealth fighters has seen reduced readiness and usability as maintenance issues drag down mission-capable rates, Israeli sources said that their F-35s were faring better.
Multiple Israeli sources said that the IAF’s F-35s have remained more combat-ready than what was detailed about American F-35s in the report, with one source even saying that over the course of the wars since 2023, the F-35 has remained operationally ready 90% of the time.
Two different sources suggested that Israeli maintenance standards may be higher.
Israel certainly has needed to use its F-35 aircraft more often in recent years than the US has.
One source said that the US often uses private contractors for its aircraft maintenance, whereas the IDF has three different levels of maintenance staff all working for the military, available at all times and overtime.
According to the source, even if American crews are talented, IDF maintenance crews may also work at a different level, feeling that their families may be under attack if they do not get the aircraft to a higher level of constant readiness, whereas the danger facing American maintenance crews and their families is not comparable, if there is any direct danger at all.
IDF sources said that the F-35 was as operationally ready as all of the other Israeli fighter jets, which are known to include the F-15and F-16, throughout the recent war with Iran in which 1,000 bombs were being dropped per day on many days.
A source added that US Air Force officials were also stunned at how successfully Israel used its 60-year-old refueling jets during the June 2025 operation, when the US did not provide the majority of the refueling (which it did in the recent 2026 war)
The Lockheed Martin-produced F-35 is the Pentagon‘s most expensive weapons system, with the grand total of acquisition and sustainment costs expected to top $2 trillion.
Issues plague US F-35 flight capabilities
However, according to a report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), just as aircraft and maintenance costs have risen, persistent problems have limited how often the aircraft can fly.
According to the report, the American military has invested billions of dollars to improve readiness, but these efforts have failed to deliver results.
The GAO report said that the mission-capable rate for one mission fell from 67% to 44% between 2021 and 2025, while the full mission-capable rate dropped from 38% to 25%.
Next, the report flagged several problems that contributed to the decline, such as spare-part shortages and software issues.
Although the Pentagon is trying to reverse the trend by investing $13.7 billion in readiness, the lag time to see a practical impact could be measured in years, and the funds earmarked so far may be insufficient.
This could perpetuate current problems, such as overreliance on contractors for support, parts capacity constraints, and cost gaps in keeping the F-35 running throughout its life cycle.
In the past, there have even been instances in which F-35s crashed, leading to the grounding of both Israeli and US F-35s for months.
However, during Israel’s wars from 2023 to 2026, the F-35 has often been the lead fighter in multiple rounds versus Iran, and has also had a key role on other fronts.
Responding to the US report, Lockheed Martin said it “continues to partner with the Joint Program Office and our industry partners to ensure we are delivering efficient and effective sustainment for the warfighter. We have recently invested more than $2 billion in advanced funding to accelerate spare parts to increase readiness rates across the F-35 fleet.”
The statement did not directly address or contradict the extent to which the allegations in the report are true, and did not address the situation in Israel.
The IDF officially responded, “There has been no difficulty in the area of maintenance. The Adir [F-35] squadron’s readiness has been very high, and the scope of its activities and the results of the broader operations testify to this. In addition, every sortie is evaluated, lessons are learned and implemented on a rolling basis, and there are no gaps that have influenced the operational readiness of the apparatus.”
