Two Trillion Dollars…
Pretty soon, we’re talking real money.
So we put this in perspective: Two trillion U.S. dollars in $100 notes would be 1,356 miles high. If they were one dollar bills, it would be 135,600 miles high (the moon is 238,900 miles from Earth).
During testimony with Rep Matt Gaetz, the U.S. Air Force Secretary testified that only 29 percent of F35 aircraft are fully operational.
“While the Pentagon now expects the plane to fly until 2088, GAO found the services are planning to slash flight hours, which can help hold down the program’s topline.”
The cloudy sustainment picture comes as the F-35 program is failing to meet mission capable rate goals, which GAO covered in the September 2023 sustainment report. The program is meeting 17 of 24 reliability and maintainability goals as of August 2023, GAO found today, but woes ranging from depot capacity to a dearth of spare parts continue to drag down fleet readiness. Still, the program has managed to eke out some relatively good news in recent months, the most recent being the mostly symbolic move to approve the jet’s full rate production after years of delays.
In total, GAO said DoD has implemented just 13 of 43 recommendations the watchdog has made since 2014 on operating and sustaining the F-35. Lawmakers plan to further probe the program’s performance in a hearing the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee is scheduled to hold Tuesday.”
