more at
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...-capable-rates

The reliability of various USAF aircraft has always been a hot topic within
defense circles, but the reality of keeping different platforms in the air has
made mainstream news as of late. At the same time, the average person seems to
be a bit surprised by the actual number of different types of aircraft in the
Air Force's inventory. So a simple chart showing both metrics would be very
helpful, and that's exactly what our friends over at Scramble posted on their
Facebook page recently.

The list, which was sourced from the USAF'S data by the Air Force Times,
includes four years of mission capable rate (aircraft can fly with all combat
systems functional) data as well as the historical change for each platform, for
better or worse. The inventory as of 2017 for each aircraft is also posted in
its own column.

Some may be surprised that even with all the USAF's complaining about how old
and unreliable the airframes are, the E-8C JSTARS was still able to pull off a
mission capable rate of 64 percent in 2017, and a respectable 76 percent in
2016.

Meanwhile the relatively small fleet of F-22s hit an abysmal 49
percent—basically you need two aircraft available for one sortie—in 2017, down
from a paltry 60 percent the year earlier. This is the cost of flying a
low-observable, "thoroughbred" fighter. Considering only about 125 are combat
coded for front line service at any given, this figure is even more troubling.

Over a decade after taking its first flight, the F-35A continues to struggle as
well with a 55 percent mission capable rate. This has been a major story as of
late, and even though the USAF and Lockheed Martin are working to increase the
aircraft's availability, still only around half are available at any given time.
The test fleet full of early examples also draws down this number, but the cost
of upgrading those jets to current standard is going to be very high, and still
they are unlikely to be on an equal level with their newer counterparts.




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