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The Pentagon is accelerating production of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 jet even though the planes already delivered are facing "significantly longer repair times" than planned because maintenance facilities are six years behind schedule, according to a draft audit.
The time to repair a part has averaged 172 days -- "twice the program's objective" -- the Government Accountability Office, Congress's watchdog agency, found. The shortages are "degrading readiness" because the fighter jets "were unable to fly about 22 percent of the time" from January through August for lack of needed parts.
[...] The F-35 program office and Lockheed have identified steps to increase parts availability "to prevent these challenges from worsening" as aircraft numbers increase, the GAO said, but Pentagon documentation indicates "the program's ability to speed up this time line is uncertain."
The GAO also disclosed that the F-35B -- the Marine Corps version of the fighter that's scheduled to begin ship deployments next year -- won't have required maintenance and repair capabilities at sea and "will likely experience degraded readiness."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 05 2017, @08:20PM (1 child)
Disagree. Recall the stealth fighter that was shot down over Serbia. All the technology in the world can't save you from idiot planners making idiot plans, and anyway, contingency plans against old technology were developed by not flying the same routes every goddamn day as well as utilizing band 1 and 2 ECM on C-model Eagles and other aircraft, and band 1.5 ECM on Strike Eagles.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Sunday November 05 2017, @08:25PM
You can always get complacent and make mistakes. I am guessing that is what happened there.
Just because the technology is effective doesn't mean you don't still have to be on your game.