Navy, Air Force struggling to keep planes ready for take off
The F-22 and KC-130T fleets have the worst results of the eight fleets GAO assessed.
By JUSTIN KATZ
on June 17, 2022 at 1:25 PM
WASHINGTON: Both the US Navy and Air Force have been struggling to keep some planes ready to fly in recent years, and it’s only getting worse, according to a new watchdog report.
“Mission capable rates — a metric used to assess the health and readiness of an aircraft fleet — and other related maintenance metrics trends have worsened since fiscal year 2015 for eight selected aircraft,” the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published Wednesday. “While the Air Force and Navy have initiatives to address unit-level maintenance challenges, neither service has mitigated persistent fixed-wing aircraft sustainment risks.”
The watchdog agency reached those conclusions after studying the mission capable rates for eight different warplane fleets: the Air Force’s B-1B, C-5M, F-22, KC-135 and the Navy’s C-130T, KC-130T, F/A-18E/F and P-8A. The report was created in response to a House bill directing the GAO to assess mission capability rates for certain
https://breakingdefense.com/2022/06/navy-air-force-struggling-to-keep-planes-ready-for-take-off/
