https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-f-35as-mission-capable-2023/ Skip to content Login Search [ ] [] Login Search * News + News Home + Air + Space + Warfighter Training + Russia-Ukraine + Congress + Personnel + National Security + Technology + Cyber + Budget * Daily Report + Today's Report + Airframe + Subscribe! * Magazine + Current Issue + Back Issues + Almanac + Get The Magazine * History Home + Chronology: History of Airpower + Valor + Namesakes * About Us + About Us Home + Our Staff & Products + Join AFA + Advertise with Us + Contact Us + Reuse and Reprint Permission * Weapons & Platforms * 2025 NDAA Subscribe Close Image [] The Air Force's F-35As are only mission capable about half the time, the service said. Here, Airmen with the 388th Munitions Squadron and 4th Fighter Generation Squadron conduct a cold integrated combat turn on an F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 4th Fighter Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, at Kadena Air Base, Japan, Feb. 6, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jonathan R. Sifuentes Expand Photo [8251048-900x600] Share Article Air Force Confirms Its F-35As Were Mission Capable About Half the Time in 2023 June 27, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak Share Article The F-35A mission capable rate for fiscal 2023 was 51.9 percent, with the Air Force blaming spare parts availability for the decline from the previous year's figure of 56 percent. Mission capable rates measure the percentage of time an aircraft is able to perform at least one of its core missions. The service previously reported the fiscal 2022 MC rate as 65.4 percent, a figure Air & Space Forces Magazine included in its annual almanac. Now, however, officials say that figure was inaccurate. Asked about the significant discrepancy and the reason for the error, a service spokesperson said "the reason for the inaccurate number last year isn't immediately available, but we shared a correction as soon as we realized the error. In order to be consistent, the MC capable rates we report each year measure the same criteria." The new figures match those published in an April audit of F-35 sustainment costs from the Government Accountability Office. In that report, the GAO said the F-35A's mission capable rate peaked in 2020 at 71.4 percent, then declining to 68.8 percent in 2021, 56 percent in 2022, and 51.9 percent in 2023, as the Air Force brought on more jets at the rate of about 40 per year. The GAO quoted the Air Force's "minimum performance target" MC rate for the F-35A at 80 percent, and its "objective performance target" as 90 percent. In the audit, the GAO noted that "none of the variants of the aircraft (i.e., the F-35A, F-35B, and F-35C) are meeting availability goals," but allowed that the services "have made progress in meeting their affordability targets (i.e., the amount of money they project they can afford to spend per aircraft per year for operating the aircraft). ... This is due in part to the reduction in planned flight hours, and because the Air Force increased the amount of money it projects it can afford to spend" on its F-35As. The GAO report states the Air Force now expects to pay $6.6 million annually per tail to operate and sustain the F-35A, a roughly 34 percent increase over the figure it cited in June 2023 of $4.1 million per airplane. The service also told the watchdog agency it would continue to operate the F-35 about eight years longer than originally planned but fly each aircraft less often. The service expects to fly each F-35A about 187 hours per year, versus the original plan of 230 hours per year. While the Air Force has in previous years stated an MC goal rate of between 75 and 80 percent for most its aircraft types, it has abandoned that practice, a service spokesperson said. "The Air Force does not have an overall [MC] goal or standard," she said. Mission capable rate "'goals' are specific to the wing/unit flying the aircraft, derived from either syllabus sortie requirements (training) or home-station training and real-world operation requirements (ops bases)," the spokesperson added. The service has said the way it measures mission capability rates has changed in recent years, with more focus on readiness of aircraft either already deployed or about to deploy and less on stateside aircraft. The spokesperson reiterated that stance, claiming MC rates "do not equate to Air Force readiness rates." "They are just one component assessed at the unit level to help determine how ready a squadron is to meet the threat," the spokesperson said. Instead, the service measures readiness "by how well the Air Force can carry out its missions, which requires more than mission-capable aircraft. It also requires trained and ready air crew, maintainers and other airmen, as well as enough spare parts and resources." The Air Force declined to offer explanations for significant declines in mission capable rates for various fleets, such as the C-5 Galaxy, B-1 Lancer, and other platforms where huge resource investments in maintainability and reliability have not paid off in aircraft availability. Overall, MC rates for most Air Force fleets--44 of 64 types--declined in fiscal 2023 over 2022. Air Latest News stewart Air Force General Cleared of Sexual Assault, Guilty of Other Charges [photographer_53818189656_o-] PHOTOS: On 'I-Day' at Air Force Academy, Class of 2028 Becomes Basic Cadets 19th Air Force air education and training command Generals Start Deliberating as Arguments End in Stewart Court-Martial [Pensacola_18-200x200] Air Force Vet Indicted for Leaking Secrets on Weapons 'Vulnerabilities' [5986369-200x200] 'A Chunk Taken Out of His Spine': F-16, KC-46 in Refueling Incident over Europe Subscribe to the Daily Report Get your daily fix of Air & Space Force news delivered right to your inbox every day. There's no more reliable source for news about your Air & Space Forces. Subscribe Today Related Content 'A Chunk Taken Out of His Spine': F-16, KC-46 in Refueling Incident over Europe June 28, 2024 A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter and a KC-46 Pegasus tanker were involved in an aerial refueling incident off the coast of the Netherlands on June 27, service officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine. New Training Program Gives One MQ-9 Maintainer the Skills of Three June 27, 2024 A new training initiative at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., is helping MQ-9 maintainers expand their specialties, essentially giving one Airman the skills of three to be able to generate sorties with minimal crews. Air Force Releases First Video of XQ-67 Drone, a CCA Prototype, in Flight June 27, 2024 The Air Force released the first video of a new experimental drone in flight. General Atomics' XQ-67A is intended to prepare the service for its future fleet of autonomous collaborative combat aircraft, and the company has called the drone a "CCA prototype." B-52s Take Off from US Base with JASSM Cruise Missiles for 'Unique' Exercise June 26, 2024 Airmen from Barksdale Air Force Base's 2nd Bomb Wing carried out an unusual exercise June 10-13 during which they loaded AMG-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, or JASSMs, onto B-52H Stratofortresses to test their ability to conduct long-range conventional airstrike missions. DARPA Announces a New Flying-Wing Reconnaissance X-Plane: XRQ-73 June 25, 2024 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has assigned the designation XRQ-73 to its newest "X-plane," an autonomous flying wing reconnaissance aircraft prototype with extra-quiet propulsion that is expected to fly this year, the agency announced June 24. Two B-52 Bombers Fly Rare Mission in Support of SOUTHCOM June 25, 2024 Two B-52 bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base flew a mission in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility last week, a relatively rare trip below the equator. The sortie comes on the heels of SOUTHCOM's three-week multilateral exercise, Resolute Sentinel, which wrapped up June 14. Air Force to Make First of 13 HACM Hypersonic Tests This Fall June 24, 2024 The Air Force expects to start test-flying the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile starting this fall, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Tests will iterate the design and continue until 2027, at which point HACM will transition to a major defense program if all goes well. How a Small Fleet of E-11A Business Jets Allow USAF to Communicate Across the Middle East June 21, 2024 Amid the reduction in America's airpower in the Middle East, one asset has proven its resilience: the E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft of the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron. Air & Space Forces Magazine had a rare opportunity to talk to the Airmen who fly critical missions in the... Flying Hours: USAF Seeks Stability Before Seeking Growth June 21, 2024 The Air Force flying hours program--which has suffered steady declines in recent years to the alarm of observers and lawmakers--will stabilize in the coming years as leaders focus on making sure pilots and aircraft alike can actually fly all the hours that are funded, the service's operations boss said this... * Facebook * X/Twitter * Instagram * LinkedIn * Daily Report * Contact Us * Advertise * Subscribe! * Air & Space Forces Association * Reuse and Reprint Permission * Privacy Policy Air & Space Forces Magazine is the official publication of the Air & Space Forces Association, 1501 Langston Boulevard, Arlington, Va., 22209-1198. Copyright 2024