Page 45 - World Airnews Magazine January 2020 Edition

MILITARY

USAF’S FUTURE FIGHTER

PLAN MAY LIMIT GROWTH

By Jen DiMascio
“The average O&M cost per plane is 74% higher today in real
terms than in fiscal 2001,” the report said.

Looking more closely at maintenance costs, he found that the
he B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering most expensive aircraft to operate are the smallest fleets, such

Tboth conventi onal and nuclear muniti ons. A dramati c leap as the Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post aircraft, the

forward in technology, the bomber represents a major milestone Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar

in the US bomber modernisation programme. The B-2 brings System and Northrop’s B-2 bomber.
massive firepower to bear, in a short time, anywhere on the globe “This is because the fixed costs of operating the fleet are distrib-

through previously impenetrable defences. uted across more aircraft in large fleets, which brings down the

The US Air Force’s plan for acquiring future fighter aircraft may overall ownership cost per plane,” the report said.

cramp the service’s ability to grow in the future, a study of the “The data suggest that the air force could reduce operating costs

USAF’s force structure plans has indicated. by divesting aircraft that are maintained in small numbers in the

The study, ‘The Air Force of the Future’ compares the service’s current inventory and consolidating the capabilities they provide

force structure plans during times of peak budgets - in fiscal 2020 into common multi mission platforms.”

and fiscal 1985. Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper is recommending an acqui-

In fiscal 2020, a budget of (US) $205 billion could support 5,300 sition strategy dubbed the “digital century series.”

aircraft. This is a little more than half of the number that the same It aims to build new fighter aircraft designed to last 3,500 flight

amount of money, adjusted for inflation, could support in 1985 hours in batches of hundreds, rather than the current model of pursu-

- 9,400. The same holds true for the number of personnel, the ing advanced technology for an aircraft type that will last for decades.

report said. But Harrison estimates that the operation and sustainment cost

Released in October by Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace of sustaining five different aircraft types of 72 aircraft, or 360 total

Security Project at the Centre for strategic and international stud- aircraft, would cost about the same as sustaining 1,800 aircraft of

ies, the study examined three different studies of the size of the the same type.
future force. “That’s something the air force has got to consider,” Harrison
As part of the report, Harrison drilled further into the Air Force’s said. “With the digital century series approach, they may end up

spending habits to find that one factor underlying the inability with a bunch of small fleets and may limit the ability of the air

to afford a larger force is the increase over time in operation and force to grow in the future.” Q

maintenance costs. Article courtesy: https://aviationweek.com/defense/

World Airnews | January 2020
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