WASHINGTON — The Navy’s vice chief of naval operations said that readiness of the strike fighter community is improving and is approaching the 80% goal set by former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
“The highs are getting higher and the lows are getting higher,” said VCNO Adm. Bill Moran, speaking of the daily readiness statistics that come in from the fleet.
Moran was answering questions April 16 at an event of the U.S. Naval Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, and sponsored by Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Moran, a P-3 pilot and now nominee for chief of naval operations, said that less than two years ago, the readiness of the F/A-18 strike fighter was less than 50% mission capable.
The running 10-day average last week was 76%, he said.
Moran said the Navy had “accepted normalization of deviancy” in a time of budget turbulence and that “naval aviation had fallen into that trap.”
He said the Navy recruited the expertise of the commercial aviation industry to look at its processes and metrics and implemented changes that helped to turn the situation around. He also said the lessons also were being applied to surface ship maintenance.
