“I was in the maintenance operations center and they're telling me we got X amount of aircraft ready. And I'm looking at a particular aircraft that has no engines in it, but they're counting that. So I don't know how you do that.”
The Aerospace Advantage · Geopolitics & World Affairs · November 2026
Context
Arguing that Congress needs a clearer picture of fighter readiness, he tells of readiness counts that included an aircraft with no engines.
Transcript
…demand, with concurrency all the time. That is just a steady state. And so I would just want to make sure that those floors account for that real-world demand, not what makes sense on an Excel spreadsheet to meet a budget top line saying one major theater only. Yeah, it's never worked that way. No,
…will be key to sustainability and more importantly, combat success. Laser Sledge, what are your thoughts to add? I mean, a lot of congressional delegations are tracking this topic, given the advanced age of fighters and the need to recapitalize, and just to be honest, bases in their districts.
…and high risk because it's up to Congress. Congress ultimately says, okay, you gave me the information. You need this many fighters. Well, we only have the budget for this. And at least they know that they're accepting more risk. And that'll be key. But I think the bottom line is, you know, and you said it, I mean, even look at, we try to do operations in Iran. What was the impact on the force? I was in the maintenance operations center and they're telling me we got X amount of aircraft ready. And I'm looking at a particular aircraft that has no engines in it, but they're counting that. So I don't know how you do that. Yeah.
Hey,
that's very fuel-efficient aircraft.
Yeah. Jen, you talked about DIA's previous assessment about what the Russians are doing and what China is doing as well. But recently, Russians were stocking some of our key satellites and we learned about that in the media. So bring us up to speed.
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