Majority of Navy's F/A 18 strike fighter jets
grounded
BY KAREN GRAHAM FEB 12, 2017
Nearly two-thirds of the Navy's F/A 18 strike
fighter jets are grounded because there isn't enough money to fix them. And
what is worse, even if Trump were able to give them the money, it would take
years to catch up because of the huge backlog.
We have an interesting, and you could say, an immediate problem going on
in our federal government, and it concerns our nation's defense. More
intriguing, the problem pops up at the same time the Trump administration is
talking excitedly about a plan to grow the Navy from today’s goal of 308 ships
to 350, reports Defense News.
But right now, with no Congressional
budget agreement in place to increase defense spending, top Navy brass say that
with over half of its aircraft out of service, its usable planes are being
pushed to the limit.
But the real kicker is that not only are 62 percent of the F/A 18 strike
fighter jets out of service awaiting repairs and/or parts, but 53 percent of
all Navy aircraft – some 1,700 combat aircraft, patrol, transport planes, and
helicopters – can’t fly, reports RT.com.
Additionally, there “isn’t enough money to fix the fleet’s ships, and
the backlog of ships needing work continues to grow. Some subs have allegedly
been out of service literally for years - as much as four years or more,” Defense News reports.
This bleak news came out when Vice Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. William Moran told lawmakers on the House Armed Services
Committee earlier this week that "For a variety of reasons, our shipyards
and aviation depots are struggling to get our ships and airplanes through
maintenance periods on time."
Moran, along with commanders from the Army and Air Force described the
rundown condition of our defense fleet and aircraft, citing sequestration and
furlough budget cuts by the GOP-led Congress and the Obama administration as playing a role in the problem.
However, Peter Singer, a strategist for
the Washington-based New America Foundation disagrees. He says, "the
readiness problems are a culmination of a series of decisions to keep kicking
the can down the road, from Congress's budget issues to the Pentagon assuming
there would be a new replacement jet by now."
But it could be the culmination of several issues, including
Congressional constraints, the Obama administration and a lackadaisical
attitude by top brass in assuming things would work out.
Democratic Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member on the House Armed
Services Committee, told CNN those constraints have
been "compounded by over a decade of war" and "long delays in
the development of replacement aircraft."
The F/A 18 has been described as the backbone of naval aviation and was
designed to have a lifespan of about 6,000 flight hours. However, they are
being flown 8,000 to 9,000 hours in fulfilling mission requirements as a result
of budget restrictions.
John Venable of the Heritage Foundation
says that the problems voiced by Moran and other top brass really highlight the
military's "extraordinarily low levels of readiness" and he is afraid
that things could only get worse. Now that is something we all need to think
about.
Original post: digitaljournal.com
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