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Might be sure to reread Mason’s recent column about the Air Force trying to shift more training from planes to simulators. They may not have much choice.<\/p>\n
The GAO surveys our air fleets to make sure the planes are able to do their jobs. The applicable metric is:<\/p>\n
\u201cmission-capable rate,\u201d or how often a type of aircraft can fly and perform at least one of its combat missions, like close air support or target tracking. Those targets can vary by airframe and by year.<\/p>\n
The Government Accountability Office studied 49 types of airframes across the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps for its Nov. 10 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n
GAO found that 26, or about half, of the aircraft studied never reached their annual readiness goal between fiscal 2011 and 2021, despite the Pentagon spending tens of billions of dollars on aircraft maintenance each year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“Never reached their annual readiness goal” for a decade. Think about that a minute.<\/p>\n
That includes all three Army and nine Marine Corps aircraft in the report, six of 22 Air Force platforms, and eight of 15 Navy airframes. They span 10 types of rotorcraft, eight kinds of fighter jets, three tanker aircraft, three cargo planes and two command-and-control platforms.<\/p>\n
Just five airframes met their mission-capable goals in at least half of the years studied, and only one \u2014 the Air Force\u2019s Vietnam War-era UH-1N Huey helicopter \u2014 hit the mark every year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Two of the fleets hit their goals for 2021. Thirty of the rest failed by more than 10 points. And the best of the lot is a chopper older than most of our readers.<\/p>\n
For example, Air Force Times reported in February<\/a> that, on average, seven out of every 10 planes were available as needed for combat missions, training or other routine operations last year. That number has barely budged in recent years despite concerted efforts to ready aircraft for war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n