Ops tempo and other stuff

Salute!
Calling all active folks and regardless of specialty/AFSC. Old farts are welcome to opine as well.

Ran across this article during my normal mail check, then news, weather and sports.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5286 ... ic-fatigue

I saw a little of what the article decribes before 1975. We then implemented lessons-learned from SEA and improved many things - Red Flag, Top Gun, Agressors, AMU's versus centralized maintenace, dedicated crew chiefs, and the beat goes on. Our average jocks started to get almopst 20 hours a month versus 10. We lowered our "low altitude" nav training using rigidly supervised steps. and of course, we mandated dissimilar A2A.

I saw results of increased ops tempo here at Eglin amongst the troops in the 33rd and Special OPs sqds ( two neighbors). They weren't getting shot at a lot, but were always on the road.

Comments?

Gums sends...

Very late here so I'll comment later: After Spike in Deaths, Lost Aircraft, Aviation Commission Calls for New Safety Council
https://news.usni.org/2020/12/04/after- ... ty-council

One thing came immediately to mind was the 'lack of training' (cited elsewhere I need to get the PDF pages ready) about Aviation Medicine - 'causing' the recent rash of PE Physiological Episodes with various aircraft oxygen systems. WTF?!

Physiological Episodes: Understanding the human system [5 page PDF of article attached below]
Summer 2020 Andrea Watters

"...“We believe educating the pilots and the medical professionals is so significant that we’ve rewritten the entire physiology chapter in CNAF 3710....”

...“While aviators have been trained in this all along, what we’ve found is that they haven’t been trained extensively enough. We believe educating the pilots and the medical professionals is so significant that we’ve rewritten the entire physiology chapter in CNAF 3710. It is about twice the size of the original, and once published, it will do a great job in educating new aviators and re-educating veteran aviators on exactly what their bodies are experiencing in flight,” Hoffman [Cmdr. Allen “Doc” Hoffman - flight surgeon] said.

Armed with this knowledge, aviators will become more aware of symptoms, correlate those symptoms to what happened in the cockpit and know how to mitigate them, Hoffman said."

Source: https://navalaviationnews.navylive.dodl ... er2020.pdf (8.8Mb)

I'd find difficulty to comment as I would say I was in a different flying world upside down now a long time ago meanwhile:

USAF Wants Navy-Like Model to Refresh the Force
12 Dec 2020 John A. Tirpak

"Exhausted by almost 20 years of nonstop combat against violent extremism, the Air Force is seeking a new cycle of modernization and refurbishment, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Dec. 11.

The new construct would routinely change out old gear and modernize equipment, rather than allow a backlog of needed replacements to grow indefinitely. The Air Force wants a model that is easy to understand, as the Navy has managed to do, he said.

During 19 years of nonstop combat, the Air Force has “expended and consumed the force faster than we’ve regenerated it,” Kelly said at an online symposium hosted by the Air Force Association’s Langley Chapter. “We’ve lost significant advantage in the high-end arena during that time.”

The Air Force has fallen behind in modernizing its bomber and fighter force, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, command and control, sensors, space platforms, and “ultimately, our kill chains,” he said. Over that time, USAF has exhausted its Airmen, aircraft, and families as well...."

Source: https://www.airforcemag.com/usaf-wants- ... the-force/

01 Dec 2020 National Commission on Military Aviation Safety - MILITARY AVIATION LOSSES FY2013–2020
224 Lives - $11.6 billion - 186 aircraft

https://www.militaryaviationsafety.gov/ ... Report.pdf (6.3Mb)

Executive Summary
"“What do you think will cause the next aviation mishap?”
The National Commission on Military Aviation Safety asked thousands of pilots and maintainers this question during visits to military flight lines. Across the country, certain answers were consistently repeated, regardless of Service, rank, or airframe: insufficient flight hours, decreasing proficiency levels, inadequate training programs, excessive administrative duties, inconsistent funding, risky maintenance practices, and a relentless operations tempo...."