The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this week detailing four recommendations to improve the nation’s Air Force, which they noted has declined in readiness for nearly 20 years.
A lack of modernization is a critical part of this problematic scenario.
The Air Force said that pilot and aircraft maintainer shortfalls are on the rise, and GAO concluded that it had fewer pilots than authorizations between 2006 and 2017. Fighter squadron requirements are outdated even as workloads have increased. Further, the Air Force’s equipment is aging, and it can’t keep up on maintenance, meaning that between 2011 and 2016 it usually couldn’t meet aircraft availability goals.
The lack of aircraft availability has also bled into other areas. For instance, the Air Force did not complete annual training requirements in 2016 because of the lack of available aircraft and training range limitations. GAO also found that the organization of the Air Force’s small F-22 fleet had not maximized aircraft availability, cutting into opportunities for pilots to train for high-threat missions.
GAO recommends that the Air Force revise its fighter squadron requirements, edit its F-35 sustainment plans to ensure aircraft can be used, reassess its annual training requirements to better meet current and future threats, and reorganize its use of F-22s to guarantee their full use and reduce risk to future operations. While the Air Force has concluded it needs more squadrons, GAO said the costs of such growth are unknown and warns that it would do nothing for the immediate issues. Those costs would also have to compete with other military services seeking to expand their capabilities.