F-35 Test Fleet Struggling with Low Readiness Rates

[marsavian]

https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2019 ... ess-rates/

[swiss]

This is also an issue in one of the largest Swiss newspapers. Because of the upcoming evalution

https://translate.google.ch/translate?h ... 70311.html

[spazsinbad]

Head for the hills - the sky is falling - death spiral - ohmygawd : https://www.businessinsider.de/the-f-35 ... tes-2019-8

[quicksilver]

“...raises questions...”

Oooh, ahhh, hmmm, ughhh, ooh...



Raises questions about who actually spends money to sustain this organization (POGO).

[wrightwing]

The 3F jets are at or above 80% MC rates. The earlier blocks are all being upgraded to 3F. It's not quite time to drink the kool aid.

[swiss]

So we talk about old news here.

[marauder2048]

So we talk about old news here.

Does any Air Force evaluating a new aircraft concern itself with Operational Test fleet availability?

Range and other test asset availability especially for the more challenging
portions of the test plan pose a much greater constraint.

[element1loop]

The 3F jets are at or above 80% MC rates.

Got a reference? Not to challenge you as such, I'd just like some meat on that bone.

[element1loop]

As for DAS "failing frequently", per the pogo write-up, I'm guessing this is fatigue-related from something like vibration, cooling failure, or thermal-stress accrual with age. Else we'd have heard of the failure frequency already and it would have been engineered out of existence in new production.

[jacarlsen]

The biggest question is, are the pilots getting their hours in the air or not. Counting FMC, PMC and NMC airframes across the entire fleet is really worth nothing. Lets say you have an airforce of 100 airframes. 10 are in for depot maintenance and 10 are in for phased maintenance, that will give maximum 80% possible FMC if you count all 100 airframes. However if you count the 80 available to the flightline, you can get 100% FMC.

Eurofighter problem: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... -fly-72476

[weasel1962]

Eglin's getting decent MC rates. ~77%.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/201 ... -rate.html

[wrightwing]

http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArch ... -Guys.aspx

Last October, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis directed the Air Force to increase mission capable rates for the F-22, F-16, and F-35 to at least 80 percent. At the time, the F-35 rate was 54 percent overall, but for 3F aircraft recently off the production line, the rate was better than 80 percent.

[wrightwing]

https://news.usni.org/2019/04/05/42436

Currently, the F-35A variant used by the Air Force has an availability rate of 61 percent, the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing variant has an availability rate of 64 percent, and the F-35C carrier variant has an availability rate of 84 percent, Winter said.

[swiss]

So we talk about old news here.

Does any Air Force evaluating a new aircraft concern itself with Operational Test fleet availability?

Range and other test asset availability especially for the more challenging
portions of the test plan pose a much greater constraint.

Agreed.

Problem is. When such news appears, it may influence the vote on the new fighter aircraft. Even if it should only affect the test fleet.

@weasel1962
@wrightwing

Thanks for the links. This figures looks way better. And if we look at the mission capable rates for the SH, its definitely not a specific "F-35 problem". But why is there such huge difference to the Testfleet?

[XanderCrews]

This is also an issue in one of the largest Swiss newspapers. Because of the upcoming evalution

https://translate.google.ch/translate?h ... 70311.html

that stinks. well, anything to pollute the waters?

Super Hornets are struggling more operationally than F-35s, but oh well.


We are in a funny spot with the F-35. few years back all the "good news" was what people said was cherry picked.

Now its all the bad news that's cherry picked.