A new federal watchdog report has flagged a troubling trend among U.S. military aircraft: More than two dozen fleets haven\u2019t met their annual combat-readiness goals in at least a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Government Accountability Office studied 49 types of airframes across the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps for its Nov. 10 report<\/a>. Those platforms make up the bulk of American military airpower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Service officials set yearly benchmarks for a metric called the \u201cmission-capable rate,\u201d or how often a type of aircraft can fly and perform at least one of its combat missions, like close air support or target tracking. Those targets can vary by airframe and by year.<\/p>\n\n\n\t