Chief of Staff Charles Brown and Chief Master Sergeant Kaleth Wright have made diversity and ‘wokeness’ into the core of the Air Force’s mission. Unfortunately, it also means that nearly 50% of the planes are too old and/or unfit to fly combat missions.
Daniel Greenfield Brown has spent the past few years unleashing worthless diversity reviews to try and blame the Air Force for a supposed lack of diversity, even though it now has a black chief of staff and a black top enlisted leader. The military justification for their divisive shenanigans was that diversity equated somehow to military readiness. How is the Air Force’s readiness?
The latest numbers show that the Air Force has made no progress in improving the readiness of its planes with a rate of 71.5% or 7 out of 10 planes in 2021.
The United States Air Force is supposed to have mission capable rates of 75% to 80%, but about the only aircraft that meet that criteria are the unmanned drones. The high ratings of the drones disguise the fact that the actual numbers, when broken down by aircraft, are worse.
The F-35As, the fifth generation fighters that would be crucial in countering any sizable aerial engagement with Communist China, dropped catastrophically from 76% to 68.8%. Last year, the Biden administration boasted about the largest deployment of F-22 stealth fighters in the Pacific. Unfortunately their readiness hovers at around 50%. Deploying fighters with the readiness rate of a coin flip won’t impress Communist China.
The F-15E’s, the workhorse fighter we rely on in every theater, is down from 69% to 66%, the F-15C are down to below 70%, and the situation is expected to worsen due to parts shortages. The C-130 Hercules, a backbone of our operation, has slipped below 70%. The CV-22 Osprey fell from 54% to 50%. The B-1 Lancer fell from 52% to 40%, and, at its worst, was at 10%.
All in all, only one Air Force aircraft actually met mission-capable goals: the venerable UH-1N Huey which is three years older than Chief of Staff Brown. That’s not just a disgrace, it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.
The United States is at risk of entering a military confrontation with China that we are not ready for. The Chinese have built up their own air force using stolen American technology. Meanwhile after generations of dream planes and endless billions spent, the Air Force still remains reliant on outdated aircraft that are over 50 years old in some cases and which are harder to support.
The next generation aircraft have not panned out. Their repeated failures have been met with an aggressive push by the brass to ignore the problems, punish critics, and junk the older aircraft. Older planes are being cannibalized for parts to repair other aircraft of the same generation leading to shrinking squadron sizes and brass congratulating themselves for saving money.
Rather than bootstrapping its way to military readiness, the newly woke Air Force is jettisoning readiness and focusing on diversity. During the nomination of Brown, Biden’s disastrous pick, he provided worthless and misleading mission capable rates on the F-16, the F-22, and the F-35.
Most notably, Brown claimed that the “F-22 mission capable rate achieved a high of 68% in April 2019.” That would be impressive, except that the actual F-22 yearly rate fell to 51%.
More significantly, Biden’s Secretary of Defense Austin decided to drop even the expectation of a 75% to 80% readiness rate. Brown is on board with that which means we are not ready. And the military leadership has decided to stop even trying to hit those basic readiness targets.
Instead of having at least 3 out of 4 aircraft ready, the brass have decided to take ”a more holistic view of readiness.”Communist China is not taking a holistic view of winning wars.
While Biden’s brass expect us to accept a “holistic view” of readiness, in which we aren’t actually ready, they have set the gold standard for diversity with conversations on race and hard diversity quotas. If Brown and the Air Force had the same attitude toward aircraft readiness quotas that they do toward racial quotas, we would have total military readiness at all times.
Instead we have the first black Secretary of Defense, the first black Air Force Chief of Staff, and the first black Chief Master Sergeant who tweets things like, “You don’t know the anxiety, the despair, the heartache, the fear, the rage and the disappointment that comes with living in this country… every single day.” And we have an Air Force full of planes that don’t fly.
The woke Air Force brass don’t know the anxiety, the despair, the heartache, the fear, the rage, and the disappointment that comes from spending tens of billions on aircraft that don’t fly while the woke brass throw themselves pity parties and act like expecting them to win wars is racist.
During his nomination, Air Force Chief of Staff Brown released an unprofessional video complaining that he had been a victim of racism because someone in Korea once questioned whether he was entitled to a parking space when he was out of uniform.
Now Brown has his woke parking space and a whole lot of our planes are parked on it.
Stripes magazine described a speech in which Brown “seemed to barely contain his rage” and argued “that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that I’ve sworn my adult life to support and defend have not always delivered ‘liberty and equality’ to all.”
It’s not the job of Brown to lecture us on the ideals of the Constitution, but to defend the United States. Brown, who has advocated purging personnel based on their social media, has no idea what the ideals of a nation built on freedom of speech even are, and he has no idea how to do his actual job which is to oversee an air force that is ready to take on America’s enemies.
Nor does he care. Not satisfied with junking the physical equipment, Brown and his allies are seeking to purge the Air Force of anyone they deem to be “extremists” while lowering standards and replacing merit with racial and gender quotas. As bad as the readiness rates for the planes may be, the readiness rates for woke promotions are bound to be much worse.
When asked during his hearing whether the Air Force was ready, Brown replied, “To an extent.” Should an Air Force Chief of Staff who thinks and speaks this way be fired? To an extent.
This year, with the Air Force doing even worse than before he took over, Brown is talking about a mission for “equity”. It’s shamelessly irresponsible for Brown, who has failed at his core duty, to put his racial politics ahead of his mission at a time when the Air Force is not ready.
The Pacific theater was always more challenging than Europe. In any confrontation with China, the Air Force would be key to maintaining supply lines stretching over 7,000 miles, and ready to counter Chinese incursions across another 3,000 miles. In an actual war, there would be no room for holistic views, for equity, racial quotas, or rants about systemic racism.
There would only be the cold hard realities of the enemy and the contest in the battlespace.
The good news is that our pilots, for now, remain qualified, talented, and highly motivated. Unfortunately the brass has done everything possible to change that. And our men struggle with outdated aircraft that their fathers and even grandfathers were flying, and with highly expensive, erratic, and unstable new fighters that enriched defense contractors and the retiring brass who lobbied for them. The brass are well aware of the crisis. That’s why, like so many corporate monopolies who go woke to cover up their brokenness, they focus on identity politics.
Winning at identity politics is a lot easier than winning a war. Just ask Austin, Brown, and Wright.
Pray Hard says
Greenfield is typically spot on.
BareNakedIslam says
Love his work.
alaskabroxson says
Another absolutely outstanding article you have done!! as far as my own personal opinion goes, this video flat-out-sucks. Things like this and wokeness goes, it is the last thing in the world that our military men and women stationed in various locales need to be concerned about.
In closing, I am receiving these words every time I try to post a comment. Also, I’m going to cut and paste my entire comment and send it in to the owner from my email account that I use.
“Nonce verification failed.”
BareNakedIslam says
I don’t know what that means, but your comment showed up with no problem.
Stevo says
In the UK, nonce is a prison slang term for paedophile.
BareNakedIslam says
Really? I wonder what it means in this context?
Stevo says
Looked it up, it’s a cryptological verification number.
Short for number used once.
BareNakedIslam says
Don”t know what that means either.
allanivarsson says
Hi alskabroxson, this year, I have received those words at times … “Nonce verification failed.”
Which is why I paste my comments to a temp word file and if the post fails to go through, I at a different time of night or day, repost the comment, usually it gets through the next time. I wonder if it is caused by too much traffic on the Internet at certain times.
I live in rural region and Telstra our communication supplier won’t invest in NBN which is now available 20 k’s away in Grafton NSW.
I was thinking maybe you live in a rural location in Alaska.
Pray Hard says
I get those also.
Fritz the Cat says
This is a great time for China to invade Taiwan.
allanivarsson says
Fritiz, I believe Xi Jinping will attack Taiwan by 2027. But he may attack before 2024 USA Presidential Election whilst idiot Biden rules.
https://allanivarsson.com/2022/11/10/xi-jinpings-world-war-iii-agenda-to-eliminate-america-and-impose-a-communist-world-order/
Classy Infidel says
China will not need to attack. There will be a change in the Taiwan leadership. The current gal is hanging on by a thread. Most Taiwanese are pro-China. They want simple law and order, no Wokes, a comfortable life, they are looking at Shanghai and want the same model.
And if China attacked, it would lose the support of its Asian partners. The common sense approach is to wait it out till a new leader is elected. That is coming, be patient.
allanivarsson says
Classy Infidel, you may be right, but at present, I don’t share your confidence that China will not attack. I know some Taiwanese are pro-Communist China, but I sense that is a minority not a majority.
And having studied the despot character Xi Jinping over the last three years, I don’t believe he cares about losing the support of Asian Partners that reject Communism.
Xi Jinping does want to create a ‘New World Order’ ruled by anti-freedom Marxist Socialist Communist Beijing China. Now in his third term Xi Jinping is working more aggressively to achieve his objective of China becoming the number one Superpower Ruling Earth and Space. He does not care about who he has to oppress when the time seems right to increase aggression.
Please post any important information link that has guided you towards your conviction that the majority of Taiwanese want to give up their freedom and become part of oppressive mainland China.
Millions of Pro-Freedom People in Hong Kong rejected Xi Jinping Tyranny, and many have been arrested and jailed for life.
GangStalkingVictim says
BareNakedIslam says
That’s what all retired generals do. He had a long and impressive career in the military. I have no problem with him earning a lot of money after he retired, what I object to about him is his support for pussifying the military with all the woke nonsense.
allanivarsson says
BNI, I agree, the Military should reject Woke and so should Airlines.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11412439/British-Airways-allow-male-pilots-cabin-crew-wear-make-up.html?
Rebekkah Barnard says
Can you do a story on this? Libs of TikTok report a Muslim (from Iran) staff member of a private school in Connecticut having sexual fantasies about young girls!
He gives graphic terms like being able to see their “pussies”! And he goes on for about 2 hours!
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1590778051432177664?s=42&t=WLG4et18xFlosZ3kOXiV9w
BareNakedIslam says
RB, in this case, he’s just a sick pervert, his being Muslim isn’t really the story.
allanivarsson says
This report insight really worries me. Xi Jinping is persistently getting stronger in military strength, in the PLA Army, Navy and Airforce and Missiles.
allanivarsson says
I don’t know why certain videos are no longer available in Australia. Message received …
Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
It seems to always trace back to a YouTube marketing organization stunt.
BareNakedIslam says
I get that message sometimes. Try entering the video name in your search engine and it might be available at a different site.
allanivarsson says
Thank you BNI, I shall try it.
annilinn says
Makes me question is we are still the USA. And that video is bull.
Steve says
Besides being sick of this crap that started back upon my return from Vietnam after 15 months of combat with Marines of all stripes and colors there needs to be an explanation of the term “Mission Capable” as used by the Armed Services. So for the Members of Congress and the majority of the American Public and Media here is the wool being pulled over your eyes.
FMC – Fully Mission Capable. Means ZERO, and I do MEAN ZERO deficiencies. Every system is fully operational and ALL missions can be completed.
PMC – Partially Mission Capable. Means there are deficiencies. Not all missions can be completed. Parts may be on backorder so e.g. you are missing the black box for thermal imaging and you cannot fly or operate in less than perfect weather or at night.
NMC – Not mission capable. The equipment is down and most likely is the “Hanger Queen” being cannablized (err controlled exchange) for parts to keep other equipment at PMC or FMC.
Honestly most equipment is never FMC especially the more complex it becomes such as aircraft, air defense systems, etc. Electronics is the biggest sinner. So are other major end items.
Parts, beans, and bullets are always last as the latest and greatest development project or new “toy” that makes or breaks a career will always override operations and maintenance.
Who am I? Two branches of service working on ground and aircraft weapon systems, aircraft and vehicle maintenance both enlisted and officer and as the maintenance officer.
allanivarsson says
Thank you, Steve, for this increased insight, I appreciate the information.
Classy Infidel says
Interesting.
You confirm what I have been reading on websites since the Ukraine saga started. America weaponry division is all about patching up its aircraft and tanks. And it can take months to master the most recent electronic technology.
Coming back to BNI’s worry, I do understand why real men are no longer into enlisting. Working with WOKE people can easily land you into trouble. A misinterpreted sideways glance or smirk and off you go for a touch-up diversity training session. These people probably have desk jobs.
A great YouTube that mentions USA’s depleted inventory around 6-minutes. I do know that America is dipping toward critical minimum weapon reserves such as missiles of the Himar type, the expensive toys.