June 19, 2007:
A big selling point for new combat aircraft is that they are cheaper to
operate. This is a big deal, as it is with commercial aircraft. As a result,
the military is now borrowing more maintenance techniques from world of
commercial aircraft. This approach can cut maintenance costs 20-30 percent, or
more, over the life of an aircraft. This makes more sense when you realize that
the majority warplanes have rather mundane careers. First of all, few of them
are ever in combat. From their first flight, until, twenty or thirty years
later, when they are retired and broken up for scrap, they fly a very
predictable routine of training flights. Just like a commercial transport
spends years flying back and forth between two cities. A major innovation has
been outsourcing the maintenance to firms that are paid to make the aircraft
available for a certain number of hours. Air forces have been reluctant to use
this approach, but that is changing. The savings are too great, and once a few
air forces began doing it successfully, others were eager to follow suit.
The new F-35, for example, is built to allow for
more efficient maintenance techniques. This includes components that are easier
to get to, and greater use of computerized diagnostics, just like most
automobiles in the last decade. All this reduces the number of man hours
required per flight hour. That means fewer people to send overseas, and
maintain (at great expense) in the combat zone. With all this, the maintenance
required per hour of flight is now getting down to five. In the 1950s is was
30-40 hours, although that was about cut in half by the 1970s. The F-16
requires about 19 hours of maintenance per flight hour, and the F-22 will be
under ten hours. The cost per flight hour has not been dropping as much, and is
still $5,000-$10,000 per hour. That's because components are still expensive,
they still wear out, and the lower man hour costs mean that defective
components are simply replaced. Half a century ago, more defective components
were fixed on the spot. You hardly see that anymore.
Of course, the ultimate maintenance reduction is in
pilotless aircraft (UAVs), which are half as expensive to maintain, because you
don't have all that life support gear (for aircrew) to worry about. Most air
force generals are looking at the latest generation of new aircraft (like the
F-22 and F-35) as the last manned combat aircraft. It's looking like most
future combat aircraft will be unmanned.
