On February 1 1, the website of Der Spiegel published a report entitled "Nearly two-thirds of the aircraft in the US Navy can't fly", saying that the situation of the main aircraft of the US Navy, the F/A- 18 fighter, is particularly serious. This 1983 multi-role fighter entered the service of the US Navy and was mainly deployed on the US aircraft carrier. But at present, 62% of F/A- 18 fighters cannot take off. Nearly half of them need to be thoroughly overhauled, and the rest are waiting for regular maintenance or lack of replacement parts.
Admiral William Moran said at a hearing in Washington that the reason for the slow progress of maintenance was insufficient funds. The naval fleet is aging, overstayed and understaffed.
Peter Singer, a strategist at the New America Foundation, believes that the responsibility lies with policy makers. CNN quoted him as saying that the current bad state is the result of a series of wrong decisions. After the US Congress cuts its budget, the Pentagon wants to buy a replacement for the old model.
But this needs to wait. Although the Ministry of National Defense ordered 2443 new F-35 fighters, they did not arrive as planned.
The cost of the most expensive armament project in history is getting higher and higher. In addition, the project is also plagued by technical problems: the ejection seat can not be used as planned, and the software is full of loopholes, which can not guarantee high-speed flight at all.
Therefore, the existing F/A- 18 fighters must now extend their service life. The design life of the F/A- 18 fighter is 6000 hours. But now, they have to fly for 9000 hours before they are scrapped.
However, this is only a temporary plan. The American B-52 bomber is expected to be an example. The last batch of bombers of this type rolled off the production line at Boeing Company in 1962, but now they will serve the US Air Force until 2040.