Aircraft Readiness Is Bad & Getting Worse: GAO
Of 46 types of aircraft surveyed – from the new F-35 to the aging JSTARS – not one met the Pentagon’s goal of being 80 percent “mission capable.†Most of them, in fact, keep getting worse.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on November 20, 2020 at 11:38 AM
GAO graphic
SOURCE: Government Accountability Office
WASHINGTON: Red ink bleeds ominously all over the page in a dire new report on the eroding readiness of America’s military aircraft, by the congressional Government Accountability Office. The report, released Thursday, says that of 46 types of aircraft:
Some 24 aircraft – more than half – never met their readiness goals in the nine years from 2011 through 2019.
Only two earned a “green†rating for meeting readiness goals seven of the last nine years: the Navy’s EP-3 Aries subhunting plane (7 of 9) and the Air Force’s UH-1N Huey helicopter (9 of 9, the only perfect score). But these are two rare and specialized types that make up a tiny portion of the overall air fleet.
Two more aircraft earned “orange†ratings: the Navy’s E-6B Mercury command plane (met goals five years of 9) and the Air Force’s F-15 Eagle (four of nine), the only fighter to earn a passing grade.
Every other aircraft – from the Army’s AH-64 Apache gunship to the Marine’s UH-1Y Venom – is marked in red. 18 of these “red†aircraft had met the readiness goals in one, two, or at most three of the nine years. The other 24 had never met the readiness goals in the entire nine-year period, 2011-2019.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/11/aircraft-readiness-is-bad-getting-worse-gao/
