Nearly two-thirds of the US Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike fighters can’t fly, Defense News reported.
Overall, more than half the Navy’s aircraft are grounded, most because there isn’t enough money to fix them.
62% of F/A-18s are out of service, 27% in major depot work and 35% simply awaiting maintenance or parts, the Navy said.
According to the Navy, 53% of all Navy aircraft can’t fly – about 1,700 combat aircraft, patrol and transport planes and helicopters. Not all are due to budget problems – at any given time, about one-fourth to one-third of aircraft are out of service for regular maintenance.
In a Jan. 31 memorandum, US Defense Secretary James Mattis described a three-phase plan that included submission by the Pentagon of a 2017 budget amendment request.
The third phase of the plan involves a new National Defense Strategy and FY 2019-2023 defense program which “will include a new force sizing construct” to “inform our targets for force structure growth,” Mattis said in the memo.
“Our priorities are unambiguously focused on readiness -- those things required to get planes in the air, ships and subs at sea, sailors trained and ready,” a Navy official declared.
