techno-ag said:

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https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-fighter-has-failed-meet-annual-mission-capable-goal-6-years-straight-213732

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The F-35 Lightning II, a cornerstone of U.S. military air superiority, faces significant readiness challenges. Despite the U.S. military operating 630 of the aircraft, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals that all three branches flying the F-35 have failed to meet mission-capable (MC) rate targets for six consecutive years.
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These issues persist despite $12 billion spent on sustainment. While readiness challenges are widespread across U.S. aircraft, the F-35's modernity underscores the urgency of resolving maintenance and spare parts shortfalls to counter threats like China and Russia.

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Maybe after Elon finishes with DC he can turn his attention to inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

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techno-ag said:

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https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-fighter-has-failed-meet-annual-mission-capable-goal-6-years-straight-213732

Quote:

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The F-35 Lightning II, a cornerstone of U.S. military air superiority, faces significant readiness challenges. Despite the U.S. military operating 630 of the aircraft, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals that all three branches flying the F-35 have failed to meet mission-capable (MC) rate targets for six consecutive years.
…
These issues persist despite $12 billion spent on sustainment. While readiness challenges are widespread across U.S. aircraft, the F-35's modernity underscores the urgency of resolving maintenance and spare parts shortfalls to counter threats like China and Russia.

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Maybe after Elon finishes with DC he can turn his attention to inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

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techno-ag said:

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https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-fighter-has-failed-meet-annual-mission-capable-goal-6-years-straight-213732

Quote:

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The F-35 Lightning II, a cornerstone of U.S. military air superiority, faces significant readiness challenges. Despite the U.S. military operating 630 of the aircraft, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals that all three branches flying the F-35 have failed to meet mission-capable (MC) rate targets for six consecutive years.
…
These issues persist despite $12 billion spent on sustainment. While readiness challenges are widespread across U.S. aircraft, the F-35's modernity underscores the urgency of resolving maintenance and spare parts shortfalls to counter threats like China and Russia.

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Maybe after Elon finishes with DC he can turn his attention to inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

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Decay said:

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I get the argument that you spend crazy amount of money on these for pilot safety.

But we live in a time where you could have 10 remotely piloted F-16s for the price of one F-35.

We just can't keep writing blank checks to the military contractors in the name of security. Efficiency can't come soon enough.

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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Decay said:

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I get the argument that you spend crazy amount of money on these for pilot safety.

But we live in a time where you could have 10 remotely piloted F-16s for the price of one F-35.

We just can't keep writing blank checks to the military contractors in the name of security. Efficiency can't come soon enough.

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And those 10 remotely piloted F-16's are susceptible to jamming and interference, as well as much cheaper SAM's. You'll be burning through them and spending way more in the long run because . It's like a professional buying cheap **** from harbor freight and burning through time and tools trying to get a job done instead of buying a more expensive but more reliable and accurate name brand tool and just doing it once and moving on.

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techno-ag said:

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https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-fighter-has-failed-meet-annual-mission-capable-goal-6-years-straight-213732

Quote:

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The F-35 Lightning II, a cornerstone of U.S. military air superiority, faces significant readiness challenges. Despite the U.S. military operating 630 of the aircraft, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals that all three branches flying the F-35 have failed to meet mission-capable (MC) rate targets for six consecutive years.
…
These issues persist despite $12 billion spent on sustainment. While readiness challenges are widespread across U.S. aircraft, the F-35's modernity underscores the urgency of resolving maintenance and spare parts shortfalls to counter threats like China and Russia.

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Maybe after Elon finishes with DC he can turn his attention to inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Should of made more F-22 Raptors it's the superior Jet

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GAC06 said:

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We're still buying F-15's

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Quote:

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Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee a few days later the "framework" for the decision came from a study of the future needs of the military's tactical aircraft fleet, which showed the Air Force has a shortage in its number of aircraft and the amount of ordnance those aircraft could carry.

When combined with the fact the F-15C will age out in the 2027-28 time frame, Dunford said "the best solution" was to go with the F-15EX to "backfill" the F-15 fleet.

The EX-variant initially would only be "slightly" cheaper to buy than a new F-35, but it will be more than 50 percent cheaper than the Joint Strike Fighter to operate over its life, Dunford said.

More of the calculus was explained by Maj. Gen. David A. Krumm, USAF's Director of Strategic Plans and Requirements, who told Air Force Magazine the thinking behind the controversial add of Eagles. Essentially, he said, the National Defense Strategy demands more combat capacity immediately, or as soon as possible. And while buying more F-35s is the Air Force's preferred solution, the F-15EX move could put more iron on the ramp more quickly; mostly because the transition time for individual units would take months rather than years.

"Cost of ownership," is the key factor in the F-15EX's favor, Krumm said.

"There's 80-90 percent commonality" between the F-15C and the F-15EX, Krumm said, noting that the new aircraft can use all the aerospace ground equipment now used for the C-model of the Eagle.

"That's all already in the inventory," he said, but the similarity of aircraft also means "we're looking at a transition time of monthsless than six months"to transition units now flying the C-model to the EX.

"Typically, [with] an Active unit, that [process] takes 18 months; with the Guard, it takes three years." He went on to say that "If you average that out, Active and Guard, each time we do that we save about two years of readiness," meaning aircraft available for combat, "And that's important for us."

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techno-ag said:

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https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-fighter-has-failed-meet-annual-mission-capable-goal-6-years-straight-213732

Quote:

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The F-35 Lightning II, a cornerstone of U.S. military air superiority, faces significant readiness challenges. Despite the U.S. military operating 630 of the aircraft, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals that all three branches flying the F-35 have failed to meet mission-capable (MC) rate targets for six consecutive years.
…
These issues persist despite $12 billion spent on sustainment. While readiness challenges are widespread across U.S. aircraft, the F-35's modernity underscores the urgency of resolving maintenance and spare parts shortfalls to counter threats like China and Russia.

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Maybe after Elon finishes with DC he can turn his attention to inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

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nortex97 said:

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Meh, I don't think the F-35 is actually the 'boondoggle' it is portrayed as. Yes, overly compromised by the joint-requirements but it works and works well.

To the point above, the F-22 is in truth outdated in many respects for the mission. NGAD has been 'slowed' likely because there are 'black' programs that are working/in service at this time. F-15EX has overall been a good program based on a limited ability to procure and train/equip National Guard units to transition.

"We" need to let go of some of the 'everything is a disaster' angle imho as some DoD things are actually working fairly well.

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Should of made more F-22 Raptors it's the superior Jet

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Should of made more F-22 Raptors it's the superior Jet

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nortex97 said:

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The issue is largely the age of the electronics for the -22. It was designed in the early 90's after all (for the most part) and I've read it has some ancient '486' era chips in it (though it's open and they are working on upgrading to the GRACE or "government reference architecture compute environment".)

Beautiful, capable aircraft no doubt but imagine running a desktop computer from the mid-90's today; it would be mind bogglingly difficult to upgrade to a competitive/modern software standard. And it's not just the chips, but the overall integration/software is at least 1.5 generations behind the -35, which was engineered to be rapidly upgradable partly due to what the USAF realized (too late) would become a problem down the road for the -22. All that is also a big part of the reason the notional "FB-22" concept just never got off the drawing board; too many big upgrades required, to say nothing of production equipment/tooling etc.

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