The blaze in New Jersey triggered by a flare from an Air National Guard F-16 on a training mission in May could cost the Air Force at least $200 million, reports The Press of Atlantic City. That is the total for 161 claims the service currently is processing from both property damage and dislocation expenses for those people forced from their homes. Some claims are still coming in. Just last month, the service received a single property damage claim for $197 million—significantly increasing the total cost. USAF has six months to investigate claim legitimacy.
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...