Half of France's military planes 'unfit to fly'

[Gurjot.S]

French warplanes and helicopters may be battling jihadists in the deserts of Africa and the Middle East, but the French Air Force on the whole is in a disastrous state, with 56 per cent of all its aircraft unfit to fly at any given moment, according to a senior minister.

“If I compare the current situation … of our planes with a car, it is as if I wanted to have a car every morning that works, I would have to own four cars,” Florence Parly, the armed forces minister, said during a visit to an air base in Evreux in Normandy.

She made the remark in a scathing speech about the state of the French fleet, where aircraft availability has gone from bad to worse despite a 25 per cent boost to the maintenance budget over the past five years that brought the total to €4 billion (£3.5 billion) in 2017.

Ms Parly went to Evreux last week to announce wide-ranging plans to cut soaring costs and free up more aircraft by streamlining the current maintenance programme, which is so complex that it can take 30 different contracts to get a helicopter repaired.

Britain’s Royal Air Force, whose aircraft have been in constant use for many years in Afghanistan and Iraq, was criticised earlier this year when it was revealed that on average one in three of its multi-role Typhoon fighters and Tornado combat jets was unfit to fly.Overall figures for the air readiness of the RAF fleet are not publicly available, but the figures for its fighter jets suggest that it is in far better shape than its French counterpart. Eighty per cent of the French fleet is operational in the battle zones of west Africa, Iraq and the Middle East, according to official figures, but in bases in France the figure plummets to 30 per cent.


The overall figure for aircraft ready to fly is now 44 per cent, down from 55 per cent in 2000.

On average, just one Caracal - a long-range tactical transport helicopter - in four is ready for action, while just one or two A400M turboprop transport planes out of a total of twelve are ready to take to the air.

The Rafale, which is seen as one of the best multi-purpose fighter jets in the world, scores a respectable 49 per cent availability.

But the figures for a range of other aircraft are disastrous: 22 per cent for the C-130 transport plane, 25 per cent for the Tiger attack and reconnaissance helicopter, and 26 per cent for the Lynx helicopter.

“The consequences of this are that (flight) teams train less … and the cost of an hour of flight time has gone up,” Ms Parly said.

An hour of flight time for a Caracal, for example, rose from €19,000 in 2012 to €34,000 in 2016.

“This situation is no longer tenable, and I have therefore made it a personal priority,” said the minister.She announced that a new aeronautic maintenance department would be set up next March but that there would be no increase in the maintenance budget as it was deemed sufficient if the process was properly reorganised.


The planned department, whose boss will report to the joint chief of staff, would make the company that makes the aircraft responsible for their maintenance “from start to finish,” Ms Parly said.

The aim is to avoid the case of the Tiger helicopter, whose maintenance is currently split between so many different firms or military offices that it requires more than 30 separate contracts.

Pierre Tran, a specialist on French military issues, said that in theory the minister’s plans were sound but that in practice there was a high risk.

“They (defence contractors) will likely be thinking that Christmas came early this year,” he said, noting that the huge sums involved meant that there was a high risk of taxpayers’ money being wasted.

The key to success for the government is to exert extreme caution when negotiating the new maintenance contracts with the firms involved, which include Airbus, Dassault, Thales and Air France Industries, said Mr Tran.

In a message clearly directed at aircraft makers, the Armed Forces Minister said she wanted results by 2020.

“We buy to fly, not to stock planes in hangars or parking spots,” said Ms Parly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...itary-planes-unfit-fly/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

 

[litman]

i think they have been training with the IAF. kharbozay ko dekh ker kharbozay nay rung pakar lia.

 

[alphaxyz]

i think they have been training with the IAF. kharbozay ko dekh ker kharbozay nay rung pakar lia.

Unlike other air forces around the world, paf doesnt have maintenance issues. They have the best training in the world and best pilots which makes these issues redundant.

 

[LeGenD]

i think they have been training with the IAF. kharbozay ko dekh ker kharbozay nay rung pakar lia.

LMAO

Much of Europe is a mere shadow of its former-self and under protection of the US. What do you expect from these societies filled with effeminate men? Feminism has done a fine job there.

US is the only lion of the Western World. When it takes action against another state, all the European (coward) vultures flock to the slaughter-fest to await their turn.

These cowards stood no chance at toppling Libyan regime on their own; US arrived in the picture and brought its state-of-the-art surveillance capabilities and firepower to bear.

 

[Taygibay]

A few pointers to flesh out the usual short short story
that almost always are general press articles.

Yes, the first culprit is money so that DM Parly is right
to attack the cost aspect but that won't suffice because
the problems are institutional and not military related.
The planned rise of the AF budget over 2% by Macron
will be a better fix.

When we say money is the problem it hides the different
ways this actually happens. For French aircraft availability,
3 cases will show as much :

while just one or two A400M turboprop transport planes out of a total of twelve are ready to take to the air.

That one is a pure cheat by the journo but hides a truth.
It happened for about 3 weeks due to the fact that none
of the A400Ms delivered so far are full standard but instead
in various states of capacities so that, Fr AF insisting on a
single standard fleet of Atlas, each of those already received
thus has to go back to the maker for upgrades. When the
new capacity is essential, they all go back saved the last one
that just arrived.

Origin : Think not of a poorly planned refit schedule, it isn't!
We are talking post-fit here and the schedule is that of the
OEM. When they have a slot on the retrofit line, the client
AF can trickle its aircrafts in or send a bunch right now as
the AdlA did. But in sending half your birds, you're left with
the ones that couldn't go ... those under maintenance !!!
Remains that latest delivery/inductee as sole available unit.

The culprit is money under concurrency plans as for say the
F-35 and in the modern habit of winning contracts without
any chance to hold your schedule bringing retrofits/post-fits.


The Rafale is a different case. There is no standard problem
and there is a modern quick reaction spare parts maintenance
but due to having a contractual obligation on annual buys of
the jet itself and a lack of funds ( prior to Macron's raise ), the
choice was made to shortstack the refills numbers.
Part in stock : mechs fix it! Part not ordered, the plane waits.
( The mechs don't wait, they get busy on something else! )

That kind of decision is typical of government piecemeal funding
but it goes further with old types. Sometimes, parts are not made
anymore so not available and fixes come from specialized mechs
in the AF that machine them if necessary. Sometimes, the age of
the machine means more maintenance just to keep 'em flying (
about which, the C-130s are our old ones not the new Js ). And
sometimes the fleet is so small and stretched that any incident
equals an immediate drop in availability in the real world ( mission ).

It comes from procurements being dealt with poorly on average
but the Caracal is a shining example of how the fight over money
within the government affects even new programs. As our Egyptian
friends learned in attempting to secure a loan for their Rafale option
( 12 machines ), the Finance ministry in France, called Bercy for
short, partially considers any spending as bad. They're very serious
about their treasure keeping job and hate to give any money period.

As OPEX happen so do unforeseen costs and Bercy always attempts
not to pay back the sums already spent which then have to be found
in procurement delays until the cash comes in. ( OPEX = external ops )
This year OPEX cost was over 850 M€ of course put on hold by Bercy
and a temporary cut by Matignon/PMO. One cost saving was to delay
the arrival of a new Caracal.

Now, Caracals are for our SFs, part of COS and they are used daily.
As the fleet is undersized to begin with for monetary reasons, one
less means those in service will do more work, it's simple arythmetic.
Flying combat missions requires a lot more maintenance then other
activities and it has to happen so it does and per hour cost increases.

With the right amount of helos in the fleet, that wouldn't happen.

And then there's the Tiger example of cost stemming from a bad, bad
very bad ( as Trump would say ) program and industrial organization
that the article outlined briefly.

Hope it helps with details.
Have a great day all, Tay.