{"id":52327,"date":"2019-02-27T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T05:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/02\/27\/with-months-left-on-the-clock-us-air-force-sprints-toward-readiness-goal\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:48:21","slug":"with-months-left-on-the-clock-us-air-force-sprints-toward-readiness-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/02\/27\/with-months-left-on-the-clock-us-air-force-sprints-toward-readiness-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"With months left on the clock, US Air Force sprints toward readiness goal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 In October, Hurricane Michael swept through the Florida Panhandle, slicing apart hangars at Tyndall Air Force Base that contained F-22 Raptor fighter jets incapable of fleeing the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the hurricane subsided, a number of those aircraft were moved from Tyndall to manufacturer Lockheed Martin\u2019s facility in Marietta, Georgia, where one was parked at a new dock and contractors began working to restore its stealth coating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Mattis is no longer secretary of defense, but Air Force officials contend they are putting into action his mandate to bring the F-35, F-22 and F-16 up to an 80 percent mission-capable rate by the end of the fiscal year. Because of Mattis\u2019 order, the service worked with Lockheed to make more resources available for repairing the Raptor\u2019s finicky, low-observable coating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the storm struck Tyndall, the capacity was there to move more F-22s through the repair process, said Col. Mike Lawrence, the chief of the Air Force\u2019s maintenance division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service maintains it can bring the most important of its F-22, F-35 and F-16 squadrons up to that 80 percent mission-capable rate by the end of FY19. From there, the service wants to see improvement across its entire aircraft inventory, with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson pledging to get 204 of the service\u2019s 312 operational squadrons to 80 percent readiness by 2020, and the rest reaching that level in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Pentagon leaders continue to seek increases in aircraft readiness, and the Air Force gives \u201cfrequent updates\u201d to senior officials, including acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, about its progress, Lawrence told Defense News in a Feb. 7 interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s improvement that needs to be made in all of the platforms,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cThe F-22 is one of the platforms \u2026 that has some of our tougher challenges. The F-35, being a new platform, tends to be performing well, especially in the newer model F-35s. The F-16, despite its age, is doing quite well. Among those three, there\u2019s distance to be gained, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything insurmountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t