Cover Up as Pentagon Blocks Release of F-35 Report??

A means to hide the costs and many problems with this plane.

Just my opinion for good reason

Defense officials have cited “controlled unclassified information” in the annual report by the Government Accountability Office to prevent public release of an annual oversight report.– American Machinist

Some problems cited by the GAO office just last month from the end of the article:

Earlier in June GAO issued “F-35 Sustainment: Actions Needed to Ensure Updated Strategy Improves Persistent Readiness Challenges,” in which it reported:

2025 :“F-35 sustainment costs have continued to increase, but the F-35 has not met performance goals and performance has trended down. Across the fleet from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2025:

The mission capable rate (percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions) declined from 67 percent to 44 percent.
The full mission capable rate (percentage of time the aircraft can perform all of its missions) declined from 38 percent to 25 percent.”

The Pentagon is blocking release of a June Government Accountability Office report on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, indicating that the report contains “Controlled Unclassified Information.” CUI is designation used by federal officials to characterize information created or possessed by the government that requires safeguarding or limited public access.

No details about the specific CUI have been offered by the Pentagon. The unreleased, June 25 report is titled, “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Update on Production and Modernization Efforts.”

However, program costs difficult to establish. It was not until September 2025 that the Pentagon and Lockheed settled a $24.3-billion contract for 296 aircraft in Lots 18 and 19, with those aircraft already in production. A year earlier the two sides had negotiated a framework agreement on production costs, generally fixing the unit price at $82.4 million per aircraft.

In December 2025 the Pentagon’s own inspector general reported that the F-35 Joint Program Office has not consistently held the lead contractor Lockheed Martin accountable for poor performance in sustainment activities for the fighter aircraft. It established that the F-35 jets had achieved a readiness rate of just 50%, though the contractor was paid in full without any fees or adjustments.

Smells like a cover up to me!