According to the latest news, on December 11, an F16 fighter jet of the US military stationed in South Korea crashed into the Yellow Sea while participating in military exercises, but this incident is no longer news, because this is the third F16 fighter jet that has crashed in South Korea this year. In addition, from November 2023 alone, the U.S. military has successively sent an MH60 Black Hawk*** P8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft and a CV22 Osprey transport aircraft into the sea, plus the F16 that has just been launched into the sea, just enough to get together a table of mahjong. In the face of such a dazzling report card, even the arrogant Indians could only sigh: "Whose general is this?"It's so brave!”
The Indian Army, which has the blessing of Hindustan Aeronautics, which is known as "what to fix and fall", is known as the king of plane crashes. However, in recent years, under the powerful impact of the US military's accumulation and blockbuster, the reputation of the king of the Indian army's plane crash has gradually become vain and unworthy of the name.
Although it is said that "it is cool to drop the plane for a while, and it is always cool to fall all the time", even if the US military has a great cause, it cannot withstand the toss of such a loser. As a result, everyone began to reflect on what caused the frequent accidents of US military planes, whether it was the degradation of morality or the distortion of human natureSome people believe that the United States is the only superpower in Bluestar and needs to deploy its military forces on a global scale, and that it is understandable that the US military planes have a relatively high accident rate in a state of high-intensity combat readiness and training. After all, if the plane wants not to have an accident, the best way is to stop on the ground and never move, and the more it flies, the more it falls. Of course, there is some truth to this statement, but the problem is far from that simple. Judging from the data released by the US military itself, the flight time and training intensity of the aviation units of all branches of the US military are constantly decreasing, while the flight accident rate is gradually rising.
According to the assessment report of the American think tank "The National Interest", taking the US Air Force fighter unit as an example, before the 90s of the last century, the average annual flight time exceeded 200 hours, and in 2022, only a pitiful 120 hours remained, reaching a record low. It stands to reason that the flight time has become less and the work has become easier, and there should be a large number of people lining up to do the jobs in the Air Force. In the 2023 fiscal year that has ended, the active duty forces of the U.S. Air Force are still 11 short of completing the annual recruitment target, and the reserve force is still 30 years away. As for the elimination rate of pilots after entering the army, it has also plummeted from more than 20 in the past to 027％。
This is not because the US military pilots are all highly skilled and impeccable, but because there are not many new recruits who have been replenished, and if a large number of them are eliminated, who will fly the planes?Therefore, I had to lower the assessment standards, as long as I could skip subject three, it would count. In addition to the problem of people, the problem of equipment is also not optimistic. The US Air Force's active combat aircraft fleet has dropped from more than 4,400 fighters and 330 bombers at its peak to more than 1,900 fighters and more than 140 bombers, and the attendance rate has dropped from 80 to 60. Taking fighter jets as an example, only more than 400 F35 aircraft were produced and delivered in the last ten years, the average age of more than 100 F22 aircraft is more than 15 years, the production line has been closed, maintenance costs and proper rates are deteriorating day by day, other F15, F16, A10 and other models are all products of the Cold War era, much older than the age of pilots, as for air tankers, bombers are even more outrageous, the average age of more than 50 years is commonplace.
We can imagine that a bunch of seriously aging classic aircraft, coupled with a group of unreliable pilots, with this combination of Wolong and Phoenix Chicks, this accident rate is not high. It is no wonder that US think tanks lament that the US Air Force today is facing a major crisis of severe recession and is no longer capable of launching a large-scale air offensive combat operation similar to the Desert Storm as it did during the Gulf War. However, in line with the principle of leniency for the enemy, we cannot rule out that there is more or less an element of the US military's bitter plan to cry for money (in order to ask for funds, they play the bitter plan of destroying the plane and killing people, I have to say that the US military is still very hard, and it is really a death for money, a bird for food). In contrast, the Chinese Air Force has made rapid progress in recent years, and various new aircraft have emerged one after another, and have been affirmed by the opponent, but we do not have the capital to be proud and satisfied, and we must take a more low-key and pragmatic attitude, attach importance to problems and attach importance to the opponent, in order to truly be invincible on the battlefield in the future.