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Air Force

Shanahan Provides Update to Fighter Readiness Levels: F-22, F-16 Still Lagging

By Vivienne Machi

Wednesday, May 1st, 2019

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Shanahan Provides Update to Fighter Readiness Levels: F-22, F-16 Still Lagging

An F-22 Raptor at 2010's Fort Worth Alliance Air Show. The F-22 is one of the lead platforms for the EGI-M. (Lockheed Martin)

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told lawmakers May 1 that most of the Pentagon’s fighter aircraft fleet has made progress toward meeting an 80 percent mission capable rate goal by Oct. 1, but the Air Force fighters continue to struggle. The Navy has made “significant progress” with its F/A-18 Super Hornets and should be on track to meet the readiness capable rate by the end of fiscal year 2019, he said during a hearing before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee…

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