Pathfinder Paves Way to a More Ready Air Force
May 22, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen
A readiness task force spanning several major Air Force organizations is looking at new ways to measure fleet readiness other than the controversial mission capable rate.
After trying and largely failing to get certain fighter jet fleets to reach 80 percent mission capable, or ready to enter combat when called upon, the Air Force says MCR doesn’t tell the whole readiness story. Air Force Magazine recently reported about 70 percent of the service’s aircraft were ready to deploy in fiscal 2019.
“It did not really reflect … all the pieces it takes to have a ready unit,†said Wayne Schatz, associate deputy chief of staff for operations. Critics say the Pentagon’s 2019 readiness directive wasn’t holistic enough because mission capable rates can increase simply by keeping aircraft on the ground for maintenance so they don’t degrade in flight. “But that unit would be zero combat-capable, because no one would be trained on how to fly. It really takes a squadron, a team, to go through the full sortie generation process in order to be fully trained and combat ready.â€
https://www.airforcemag.com/pathfinder-paves-way-to-a-more-ready-air-force/
