The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee met last week—in closed sessions—with the Air Force and Navy in one session, the Army and Marine Corps in another, and Guard and Reserve in a third. The subject was readiness. According to Government Executive, panel chair Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), who has vehemently opposed the war in Iraq, wants to tie any future war supplemental to US force readiness.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...