American official: Half of the US military planes are not ready to fly.
According to the investigation of an expert committee, a significant part of the military aircraft of the US Army cannot get the necessary permission to fly.
The American publication “Defense News” has written in a report that a significant part of American warplanes are not able to obtain a flight permit.
According to this report, during the inspection, which was carried out under the supervision of senior officials, several indicators were checked, including the “mission readiness factor”, which determines the number of times an aircraft flies, and the possibility of conducting at least one air operation.
This publication reported that this committee has examined 49 types of aircraft belonging to the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and with the inspection, it was found that more than half of the examined aircraft do not have the necessary technical conditions.
This is despite the fact that the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) spends tens of billions of dollars every year for the maintenance and repair of airplanes.
In this regard, the American channel “Fox News”, citing Air Force Colonel Stephen Just, reported that “only 42% of the F-16 fighters at the Ellsworth base in South Dakota are able to fly at the first request due to the lack of spare parts. are”.
Stating that the US Air Force has more than 13,000 military planes and helicopters, Stephen Just told Fox News: “Only 9 of the 20 B-1 strategic bombers stationed at the same base are able to fly.”
He added: “Not only the employees, but also our planes are tired, the lack of readiness of the parts is due to the weak financial budget, and on the other hand, the morale of the American soldiers, who did not seek to serve in the army from the beginning, has also decreased.”
In this regard, the American media reported on November 8 (November 19) the grounding of more than 100 planes from the “C-130” aircraft of the US Army.
