2 mai 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — The Super Hornet is set to meet the 80 percent mission capable rate goal by the end of the year, the Pentagon's top civilian said Wednesday, but it remains unclear whether the F-35, F-22 and F-16 will be able to meet the mark.
Last fall, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis gave the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps until the end of fiscal year 2019 to bring their F-35s, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, F-22 Raptors and F-16s up to an 80 percent mission capable rate — a key metric to determine the health of a flying squadron's aircraft.
Of those, the “real emphasis was on the F-35 and F/A-18,” acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said May 1 during a House Appropriations Committee panel, and the Super Hornet has made a “tremendous” amount of headway over the past year.
“The Navy has made significant progress with the F/A-18s. I think they're on track to meet the goal in September,” he told lawmakers.
However, Shanahan suggested that the F-22 and F-16 are unlikely to hit the 80 percent goal, adding that the F-22 “has struggled” and the F-16 “is a bit of a high bar” to clear.
Shanahan was unclear on whether the F-35 — which is available in three different variants used by the Air Force, Marine Corp and Navy — will be able to meet the mandate this year.
“The F-35s, being brand new aircraft, that [80 percent] should be the baseline where we start,” he said. “The F-35 will come home. We're going to drive that home.”
The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps didn't not provide information about the F-35's progress by press time, but the most recent statistics do not seem promising.
The services have stopped publishing mission capable rate statistics last year, citing operational sensitivities, but a March report by the Government Accountability Office found that all variants of the F-35 operated at a mission capable rate of about 50 percent from a period of May to November 2018.
However, Mattis' mandate specifies that only the F-35s used by operational squadrons must meet the readiness marker. Because there are only a small number of operational F-35 squadrons, and those units typically have newer and more reliable aircraft, the services may stand a better chance of getting to the 80 percent rate.
Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek concurred with Shanahan's assessment of the F-16 and F-22, saying that damage from Hurricane Michael to Tyndall Air Force Base's F-22s and ongoing difficulties with maintaining the F-22's low observable coating were likely to prevent the Raptor from achieving an 80 percent mission capability rate this year.
However, the service is still “optimistic” that it will be able to get its F-16s over the finish line by the end of FY19, she said.
Given the low availability of tactical aircraft in recent years, it would be a massive accomplishment to get any of the fighter jets to meet the 80 percent goal.
In August, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told reporters that half of the service's Super Hornet aircraft were mission capable — a huge increase from 2017 when two-thirds of the fleet were not available to fly.
In 2017, the last year the Air Force put out data, F-22s held a 49 percent mission capable rate and the F-16 hovered around 65 to 70 percent, depending on the model.
Despite the services' difficulties meeting the aviation readiness goal, Shanahan maintained that pushing toward an 80 percent mission capable rate for those platforms was a worthy endeavor.
“It's a lot of iron to keep on the ground, and given all the training missions and the productivity we can generate, I think holding that standard is smart for now,” he said.
1 octobre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
To use a hockey analogy, Boeing plays hard with its elbows up. It does so with the full support of the American government. We need to do the same for our aerospace industry.
2 février 2021 | International, Autre défense
Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department awarded a $30.4 million contract to boost domestic processing of light rare earth elements as part of an effort to become less dependent on China for critical technologies, the department announced Monday, The Pentagon awarded the funds to Lynas Rare Earths Limited, the world's largest rare earth element mining and processing company outside of China. The firm will use the funds to open a processing facility in Hondo, Texas, through its U.S. subsidiary, Lynas USA. The award is part of a broader push by the department to secure its rare earth supply chain, which is threatened by China's dominance in the industry, and move more production to the United States. China is the top producer of rare earth metals, which are a critical piece of defense systems like satellites or the F-35 fighter jet. “The significance of the award is they [the Defense Department] are continuing to march forward and put the pieces of the puzzle back in place so the U.S. will have access to rare earth [elements] to meet national security needs,” said Jeffery Green, president of J.A. Green & Company, a government relations firm that works with the defense industry. If the project is successful, Lynas would be the producer of about a quarter of the world's rare earth oxides, or processed rare earth elements. Increasing domestic production of the metals is critical because they are so widespread. “You'll find these things in almost every major defense system,” Green told C4ISRNET. To counter Chinese dominance, the Pentagon in recent years took steps to bring domestic rare earth production back to the United States. According to Reuters, in April last year the department funded the construction of a Lynas heavy rare earth metals facility in Texas, which it built through a joint venture with Texas-based Blue Line Corporation. In November 2020, the Pentagon announced three Defense Production Act awards with rare earth element producers worth more than $12.5 million in total. The Defense Department's actions on rare earth elements stems from Executive Order 13817, a Trump administration document directing the government to adopt a strategy for critical minerals. “This award aligns with the U.S. government's strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals under Executive Order 13817 and follows a series of rare earth element actions the Department of Defense has taken in recent years to ensure supply and strengthen defense supply chains,” the department's announcement stated. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2021/02/01/pentagon-awards-30-million-contract-to-boost-processing-of-rare-earth-elements
3 janvier 2024 | International, Terrestre
The war in Ukraine has overshadowed Berlin's longstanding quest to overhaul Germany's arms export regime.