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U.S. warplanes not meeting mission-capable rate goals

GAO finds that two dozen types of planes, including the Super Hornet, Hawkeye, and Raptor haven't met key goals in any of the past nine years.

WASHINGTON — Two dozen types of American military warplanes have not met mission capability goals in any of the past nine years.

In a new report, the Government Accountability Offices writes: "One measure of the health and readiness of a military aircraft fleet is the mission capable rate—the percentage of total time aircraft can fly and perform at least one mission."

In the report, the GAO examined whether 46 types of aircraft met their annual mission capable goals for FYs 2011-2019 and it found that only three did in the majority of years.

Twenty-four aircraft did not meet goals in any years.

They include:

  • The Navy F/A-18 E and F Super Hornets, which met their goals in zero of the nine years studied.
  • The Navy's E-2 C Hawkeye, which also failed to achieve its mission capability rate goals in each of the nine years.
  • The Air Force F-22 Raptor, which also scored a zero for nine years mission capability rate.

"The bottom line is this: the military spends over $50 billion a year to operate this vast fleet of aircraft that are frequently not capable of carrying out missions as often as the military would like," said Diana Maurer, GAO Director of Defense Capabilities and Management. "That is first and foremost of concern for the ability to project national power. It also is a concern from a taxpayer perspective. That's $50 billion a year and not getting the desired outcome."

Individual  aircraft program officials provided various reasons to the GAO for the overall decline in mission-capable rates, including aging aircraft, maintenance challenges, and supply support issues 

Maurer noted that Pentagon leaders dating back to former Defense Secretary James Mattis were aware of the problem and directed the branches to improve upon aircraft mission capability. 

Maurer also said that the Navy has begun studying private sector best practices for aircraft maintenance.

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