The report of the General Inspector of the US Department of Defense revealed losses from the corrosion of the F / A-18 deck aircraft. In the period from 2017 to 2020, the fiscal year of the US naval forces (Navy) spent more than 2 billion dollars to combat corrosion. This is reported by Navy Times.
Checking found that on parts of aircraft selected for checking in the 2020 fiscal year, did not comply with the control of corrosion. The authors note that the Navy specialists and the US Marine Corps must inspect the aircraft once in 84 days.
The report also states that officials designed to control the performance of work have not always checked the quality of aircraft inspection. This led to the fact that contractors received aircraft with corrosion traces, which were to identify US Navy specialists.
The amount spent on the fight against corrosion in the period from 2017 to 2020 fiscal year, amounted to $ 2,086,796,553. These funds make up 29.4 percent of the total cost of aircraft maintenance F / A-18.
The general inspector stressed in the report that corrosion can reduce the level of aircraft’s combat readiness. In his opinion, it is not yet known how problems with corrosion can affect the state of the F / A-18 park.
Earlier, the authors of the Military Watch suggested that the small range of F / A-18 aircraft makes American aircraft carriers vulnerable. A threat to vessels represent promising anti-relocated complexes that use potential opponents of the United States.