WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2021) The United States was not buying new combat fighter planes at a fast enough rate to replace its more than a quarter century old aging fleet, US Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and Programs Lt. Gen. David Nahom said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
"We are not buying fighters fast enough that are falling off due to age," Nahom told a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Navy and Air Force weapons systems divestments. "Forty-four percent of Air Force aircraft are flying beyond their initial service life.
Nahom said the US Air Force fleet had an average age of 28 years which was the oldest of any service and it still included many earlier versions of the F-15 jet, which first flew nearly half a century ago in 1972. Many of them were reaching a point where they could no longer be renewed for more service, he said.
"In the modernized F-15X, "We are benefiting from billions of Dollars of Saudi and Qatari investment into that platform for future warfare defense of the homeland and carry outsize weapons we've got to get these units," Nahom said.
However, F-15C jets were now flying far too long beyond their initial service life, Nahom added.
