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| The US Fighter F-22 Raptor and Super Hornet Maintenance Crisis Until It Can't Operate |
International Military - Many countries prefer to acquire new aircraft rather than continue maintenance for the old aircraft they already have. This is because it requires a higher cost for maintenance and old aircraft spare parts. This is directly experienced by superpowers such as the United States (US).
In a report issued by the US congressional monitoring agency called the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that aircraft belonging to the US Air Force and Navy have very serious maintenance problems. The GAO Institute issued a report entitled "Actions Required to Address Persistent Sustainability Risks".
The GAO agency looked at a total of eight aircraft belonging to the US Air Force and Navy from bombers, fighters, refuelers, and monitors.
Quoted from Defense Security Asia, many of these aircraft are not ready to fly on any mission. Some of them just stood still and lay down for some reason. One of them is due to maintenance and lack of spare parts.
The most surprising part of the report involved the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter. From the report submitted, it was stated that only 93 aircraft out of a total of 186 F-22 Raptor aircraft belonging to the United States Air Force could be used. 50% of that amount is not ready to be used because of the problems they are facing.
In addition to the F-22 Raptor, which has a poor maintenance record, another fighter facing the same problem is the United States Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which only has a readiness level of 51 percent.
The 51 percent readiness rate of the U.S. Navy's Super Hornet aircraft is very low compared to the 75 percent that the troops are targeting. Currently, the country's navy has 530 Super Hornet aircraft but reports by agencies under the auspices of the United States Congress.
This shows that only 267 aircraft are at the readiness level waiting to "fly" to perform any mission when ordered at any time.
The other, if it were to be deployed to carry out operations at any time, it would require the aircraft to be pre-treated before being able to fly for operations. The two aircraft, the F-22 Raptor and the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, have major readiness issues with their current level of readiness being subpar, the report said.