Reply #171: Spot on post... [View All]

[PacerLJ35]

Up until recently I was flying the C-130E...and the tail numbers we flew were built from 1961-1964. The B-52 was built in the early 1960s. Many of the tankers were built in the mid- to late-1950s. The fighters were designed during Vietnam and fielded in the late 70s and early 1980s. We bought a few attrition examples a few at a time into the 1990s, but after that we stopped. The average fighter is over 20 years old. The B-1 is 25 years old. Our Navy has gradually pulled ships off the line and scrapped them or sold them because they are too old and difficult to maintain, and the dozens of ships have been replaced with a small handful of new vessels. Army aviation is operating updated versions of aircraft designed and built in the 1960s and 1970s. Not a single aircraft in the US Army fleet was designed entirely new post 1970s. CH-47...1960s design, most were built in the 70 and a few in the 80s. UH-60...designed in the 1970s, and many were built and delivered from mid-70s on. OH-58...designed in the 1970s, updated in the 1980s. Even the AH-64 Apache was designed in the 1970s.

Our equipment is wearing out...the recent conflicts have only worsened this. I have flown aircraft with KNOWN wing cracks. Engineers and maintenance personnel impose a few restrictions, tell you to not be rough on the controls, and good luck. Imagine if your son or daughter had to fly something like that...I hope that when and if my children become adults, the military won't be full of equipment that's very dated, worn out and approaching the status of being dangerous.

For what it's worth, I love it when people tell me it must be cool to fly the most advanced aircraft in the world, and they are simply stunned when I tell them we still use navigation radios that must be tuned with a crank, and date from a WWII design.