“Mission capable” is a tricky term. Aircraft can be made less than mission capable by loosening a bolt. The processes involved in maintaining a fleet of aircraft do not reduce themselves to simple terms.
Right, or nowadays it could mean the latest software update hasn’t been installed yet.
One silver lining is this shows that our military is capable of carrying out a fairly honest accounting even when it’s bad news. I’m sure in many militaries it would be the norm to bury a bad seeming number this or make sure it didn’t get generated in the first place.
—”“Mission capable” is a tricky term.”
YES! And zero details were provided.
“As of September 21, 2023, the average mission capable (MC) rate of the US Air Force’s F-35 fleet was 55%. This is below the targets of 90% for the F-35A and 85% for the F-35B and C variants. The MC rate is defined as when an aircraft is able to perform one of its tasks.
The Air Force and Navy F-35s have also exceeded the requirement for “Mean Flight Hours Between Maintenance Events (Unscheduled)” by 110% and 120%, respectively. However, the DOT&E has recommended more investment in spares, especially for F135 engines, to reduce downtime for aircraft waiting for spare parts.”
When I was in F-4s, my squadron commander pointed out that, as a LT, the squadron he was in failed its mission readiness inspection. Largely because the jets were not mission capable.
3 weeks later, they deployed to Vietnam and flew the hell out of the jets. There is the book way of doing maintenance and the combat way.