Navy Fighter Readiness Nearing 80 Percent Mission Capable Target05 Apr 2019 Ben Werner"CAPITOL HILL – The Navy now boasts its
Super Hornet fleet is routinely 63 to 75 percent mission capable, a significant jump from the fall when the Navy struggled to keep half of its F-18s ready to fly....
...[US] lawmakers remain concerned the Navy is still taking risks in the way it manages strike fighter readiness, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, said in her opening statement Thursday. “[The Navy] has an identified shortfall of 54 aircraft, which amounts to one carrier air wing,” Hartzler said. “We need to better understand what impacts this has to overall readiness and what we can we do to improve the situation from a modernization standpoint,” Hartzler said.
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program – which the Navy and Marine Corps are still in the early stages of incorporating into the fleet – has a high readiness rate for all three fighter variants, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the F-35 program executive officer, said during Thursday’s hearing. “We’re on a trajectory to reach 80-percent capability by the end of the year,” Winter said.
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.When F-35 squadrons deploy, Winter said they now bring spare parts packages with them. With those packages, Winter said, “those mission capability rates average between 65 and 85 percent.”Winter’s office has worked with to suppliers to build up spare part inventories at depots and on the flight line, Winter said. Now maintainers have the right parts on hand, so they don’t have to keep going back to the manufacturer to order more parts. The F-35 program is doing a better job of keeping maintainers stocked with parts such as canopies, blade shields and wingtips. And when possible, Winter said, flight line maintainers now have the authority to fix parts.
“We can get spare parts to maintainers one of two ways – get new parts to flight lines, but also giving the authorities for maintainers to fix parts on the flight line,” Winter said.
Plus, as the program has matured and is nearing full-rate production, Winter said
the production line ironed out many of the problems that caused the first F-35s to require more maintenance. “The aircraft itself, lot over lot over lot, is getting more reliable,” Winter said. “Therefore, it doesn’t break as often, so therefore it’s more ready.”"
Source: https://news.usni.org/2019/04/05/42436