Saturday, March 17, 2018

A Fifth Of The Current F-35 Fleet Are Grounded Because Of A Lack Of Spare Parts

U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Caleb Worpel

Popular Mechanics: Lack of Spare Parts Is Keeping F-35s on the Ground

Many of the high-tech fighters are grounded by a lack of new parts, or delays in repairing broken ones.

The logistics system designed to keep the F-35 fleet flying often doesn’t, with more than a fifth of grounded planes sitting idle waiting for spare parts. The result is fewer airplanes available for training—and increasingly, combat—as the system struggles to keep an ever-growing number of jets flying.

Aviation Week & Space Technology reports that parts shortages and bureaucracy are hampering efforts to keep the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the air. In particular,it includes an anecdote about an Air Force major whose helmet had a broken plastic clip, a problem that would have grounded him for two weeks as he waited for a replacement. It was only when the issue was escalated to the Joint Program Office, which runs the F-35 program, that rules were bent to fix the problem.

Read more ....

WNU Editor:  It looks like the US Navy is trying to address the problem .... Navy awards Lockheed $481M for F-35 spare parts (UPI).

1 comment:

jac said...

All countries have the same big problem: bureaucracy. And this problem is increasing in America and become our worst enemy.