America's F-35s Can't Fly 22% of the Time, Repair Facilities Six Years Behind Schedule (indiatimes.com)

"[N]early 200 F-35s might permanently remain unready for combat because the Pentagon would rather buy new aircraft than upgrade the ones the American people have already paid for," according to one defense news site. And now Bloomberg reports: 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 Pentagon has said soaring costs to develop and produce the F-35, the costliest U.S. weapons system, have been brought under control, with the price tag now projected at $406.5 billion. But the GAO report raises new doubts about the official estimate that maintaining and operating them will cost an additional $1.12 trillion over their 60-year lifetime.
Slashdot reader schwit1 writes, "This is akin to buying an exotic car you can barely afford, without also budgeting for insurance, repairs, and tuneups."

Comments

Maintenance? We don't need no steeking maintenance

[HangingChad]

Slashdot reader schwit1 writes, "This is akin to buying an exotic car you can barely afford, without also budgeting for insurance, repairs, and tuneups."

Actually it's like buying a new exotic car every three months so you don't have to do schedule maintenance on any of the others.

Oh please

[sunking2]

The total plane contract is signed. They are going to be built. Bringing the cost of each plane down is dependent on production increasing. You want to slow that down and increase line costs so you can spend money on upgrades for planes that could be replaced by new planes coming off the production line? Look, I'm not saying the program isn't a mess at every level of the contractor. As a subcontractor for not only this but just about every major defense/NASA contractor I see it every day and its infuriating. But this is just a FUD hit piece.

Re:Oh please

[hey!]

It depends on whether you goal is to have a certain number plains, or whether you want to be able to use them.

If having the plane in inventory is the only thing you care about, then you're right: the quickest and cheapest route is to concentrate on production rather than maintenance. If your goal is to have planes ready to use, your production rate cannot outstrip your repair capabilities, because something as complex as a modern fighter aircraft is constantly breaking down.

How the mighty have fallen

[hyades1]

The same nation that built the SR-71, the A-10 and the F-15 serves up this lemon and tries to pretend it can still build great military aircraft?

The swamp that needs cleaning is the unholy triumvirate of US weapons manufacturers, government procurers and military brass, all sucking on the US taxpayer like a bunch of bloated leeches.

The rest of the country is going to hell while these parasites get fat providing garbage like this trailer queen. When I heard an F-35 completed a trans-Atlantic flight, I had to ask if they'd cut it up and sent it as luggage.

Oh America

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh America, a land where the government thinks a trillion dollars for a fighter jet it can't use much of the time is a good investment, but universal health care like the rest of the developed world has would be considered a waste of money.

Re:Is the F-22 production line still up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, the AF should get it over with and give the A10s to the fucking Marines, who actually know and could use a badass CAS airframe that's cheap, reliable, and deadly.

See also: C-130s. Best workhorse cargo plane for the kind of missions the Marines need to support (short takeoff, heavy load, etc).

I would also put in a recommendation for the kind of missions we fly against ISIS and the like a return to high loiter time support aircraft like Broncos, etc. ISIS knows jets can only fly around for 20-30 minutes before they have to heat to the base and then they can resume their asshole activities. It changes when you can put bullets in the sky for 4-5 hours, cheaply, and with multiples/shift changes...

Plan B

[petes_PoV]

Nearly half a trillion to build and buy. Over a trillion more to keep them flying.

At what point would it be cheaper to start being nice to all the other nations, so you don't need to spend more on defence than every other country combined?

Re:The public just has no idea how bad it is

[petes_PoV]

The public wonders why we could get stuff done so effectively in the past.

The reason stuff (government stuff) costs what it does is because that is the amount of money available to spend on it.

The other factor is the extended time periods for development. The longer you spend designing something, the more scope-creep there is. The more opportunity for plans to get changed in the light of technological advancement or the obsolescence of what you were planning to use.

So with the F35 - the article says it will have a service life of 60 years. I kinda doubt that. I reckon that long before 2077 pretty much every aircraft - starting with military jets - will be pilotless. They will be smaller, cheaper, faster, more agile and will whip this thing's arse in any battle scenario. I doubt these will be used operationally for even half their planned service time.

Re:Thanks for the analogy..

[Ichijo]

Not budgeting for maintenance is how this country can "afford" nice things. It's a Ponzi scheme..

Then instead of repairing old bridges, we build new ones right next to the old ones and let the old ones crumble. Or we raid other budgets, or we raise massive infrastructure bonds, or we simply build new neighborhoods for the rich and let the poor live with potholes, broken sidewalks, and the occasional water main break. Because keeping the poor segregated from the wealthy is the American Way! (Try to build apartments in a middle- or upper-class neighborhood and you'll quickly see what I mean.)