Pentagon fails (another) audit, restates 2028 goal to finally pass
Auditors identified a financial misstatement concerning the F-35 program as part of this past year's audit.
By Valerie Insinna December 19, 2025
 A U.S. Air Force weapons load crew assigned to the 33rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron loads a live AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) into an F-35A January 31, 2017, at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Peter Thompson)
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has failed its eighth audit in a row, restating its goal for a clean audit by 2028.
The yearly audit identified 26 material weaknesses and two significant deficiencies in the department’s controls for financial reporting in fiscal 2025, according to a DoD report released today. A material weakness represents a deficiency in control of financial reporting that results in a “reasonable possibility” that a material misstatement will not be prevented or detected in a timely manner.
The audit documented one such financial misstatement concerning the Pentagon’s biggest program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. According to the report, the department did not report the program’s assets in the global spares pool, resulting in a misstatement.
“Because the DoD is unable to provide or obtain accurate and reliable data to verify the existence, completeness, or value of its Global Spares Pool assets for the Joint Strike Fighter Program, we could not quantify the material misstatement in the DoD’s assets on the Agency-Wide Financial Statements,” the report states.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the department “remains steadfast in its commitment to rigorous annual financial statement audits” and that 2025’s audit revealed significant progress in financial management as well as recommendations for improvement.
While the Pentagon successfully closed one material weakness and consolidated another in FY25, the department’s comptroller said more needs to be done to meet its goals.
“While we made significant progress in FY 2025, the Department of War will not reach its goal of achieving a clean financial statement audit without a significant acceleration of its efforts,” wrote Jules Hurst, who was performing the duties of the Pentagon’s comptroller ahead of the department installing a permanent official. “We will change the trajectory in FY 2026 to rapidly address longstanding issues through a revised strategy and approach.”
“The Department of War is committed to resolving its critical issues and achieving an unmodified audit opinion by 2028,” he added in a letter to the assistant inspector general for audit included in the report.
News of the audit comes the same day the Senate confirmed the new comptroller, Michael Powers. During Powers’ confirmation hearing in July, he told lawmakers that within “weeks” of officially taking on the job his office “should be able to make a cut at what those milestones are” for getting to a clean audit by 2028, as mandated by the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act.
“The work is underneath: How do we get to a common or a couple of common financial systems,” he said at the time. |
