WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Air Force is in trouble. The rising cost of high-tech jets and the people to fly and maintain them threatens to put the service "out of business," in the words of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne. He said last fall that he was worried the military couldn't buy enough planes, fast enough, to replace 30-year-old F-15s and 50-year-old tankers before they started falling out of the sky. Wynne's statement proved eerily prescient: In November an Air Guard F-15 manufactured in 1980 disintegrated in mid-air, nearly killing the pilot and resulting in a prolonged grounding for most of the fleet.
Air Force aircraft are now 24 years old on average, compared to just 8 years old in 1967, and under current plans that figure will, at best, hold steady. Operating this geriatric fleet represents an "era of uncertainty," Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, the Air Force's director of strategic planning, told the Associated Press. ...
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