Significant concerns have recently surfaced about two critical dimensions of the U.S. military’s aviation efforts: the evaluation of the Coast Guard’s aircraft inventory and the DoD’s efforts to sustain the F-35.
Both are being compromised by issues related to aircraft availability and workforce management and speak directly to serious questions about the capability of these programs to meet mission needs.
Finding aircraft that soon will be derelict, the Air Force also needs alternatives to supplement its fleet. The U.S. Coast Guard, for example, an element of the Department of Homeland Security, is heavily reliant on using its aircraft to conduct search and rescue missions.
In each year from fiscal years 2018 through 2022, however, the aircraft operated by the Coast Guard had less than its target goal of 71 percent availability, ranging between 66 and 68 percent.
This deficit is primarily caused by maintenance and repair problems that do not allow the Coast Guard to field aircraft on short notice.
The Coast Guard initiated four modernization programs to prepare its fleet for operational use in the future decades. Those programs will total $105.6 billion.
One key move involves transitioning from a hybrid mix of close-range and medium-range helicopters to an all-medium-range helicopter fleet. The latter will reduce the total number of helicopters from 146 to at least 127.
The Coast Guard has yet to fully assess whether such a transition would meet its mission requirements. Alternatives analysis, as well as fleet mix analysis, are necessary to determine the appropriate type and number of helicopters.
Operating challenges are exacerbated by a severe shortage in the Coast Guard’s aviation workforce. As of July 2023, 9 percent of authorized military aviation billets remained unfilled.
The Coast Guard has not yet been able to quantitatively define its needs; consequently, it cannot resource plan for its aviation forces appropriately.
Meanwhile, another critical program that supports the Department of Defense’s air capability is being derailed, too. Since 2014, the Government Accountability Office made 43 recommendations to make the F-35 program workable and sustainable.
Many of these have been accepted by the Department of Defense, but nearly 70 percent remain unimplemented.
It is concerned with the need for reassessment of the F-35 engine sustainment strategy, improvement in the management practice of spare parts, and review of the responsibilities that the government and the contractors should share on F-35 sustainment.
These ongoing challenges both in the Coast Guard and F-35 programs bear out the nature of these difficulties, which are so deeply embedded in maintaining and modernizing military aviation capabilities.
As these programs continue to evolve, these problems must be addressed to bring the U.S. military aviation forces to full readiness and effectiveness.