Staff Sgt. Benjamin Preston, 180th Fighter Wing crew chief, and Senior Airman Allison Garcia, 180th FW munitions specialist, stand next to an F-16 Fighting Falcon before morning training flights at Naval Air Station Key West, Fla., Nov. 3. The 180th FW deployed to Key West to train with Fighter Squadron Composite (VFC-111), the Navy's premier adversary squadron. (Staff Sgt. Kregg York/Air National Guard)
Air Force Times: Here’s all the military planes that keep falling short on readiness
A new federal watchdog report has flagged a troubling trend among U.S. military aircraft: More than two dozen fleets haven’t met their annual combat-readiness goals in at least a decade.
The Government Accountability Office studied 49 types of airframes across the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps for its Nov. 10 report. Those platforms make up the bulk of American military airpower.
Service officials set yearly benchmarks for a metric called the “mission-capable rate,” 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.
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WNU Editor: The report is here .... Weapon System Sustainment: Aircraft Mission Capable Goals Were Generally Not Met and Sustainment Costs Varied by Aircraft (GAO).