Military Aviation Lack of Training Personnel and Equipment

Introduction
The aviation field within the armed forces has serious problems as almost all the related services are making reports that they have training, pilot retention, and general machinery maintenance challenges (Burke, 2018; Deal, 2019; United States Government Accountability Office, 2019). The reason for this malaise is not clear but there are two possible originating problems that are just as common to military aviation as they are to the other branches of the military. First, military aviation was dedicating insufficient resources, including time, to maintenance. The period of the War on Terror had many specialized personnel in many departments working around the clock to ensure things were running smoothly. Maintenance issues were, therefore, rarely a problem. With most of the maintenance work being done by contractors, pilots were left to fly several hours with some accumulating upwards of 100,000 hours within a year (Burke, 2018). The situation after the war is totally different. At home, a great portion of the maintenance work is done by service members. It is true that maintainers are putting in several hours at work. However, most of the work they do on a typical day is not aircraft maintenance.
As less man hours are directed at maintaining aircraft, a second problem arises: the military ends up with fewer aircrafts that are in good enough a condition to fly. As fewer planes are availed to pilots to fly, they end up flying less and this reduces the urgency for training and retraining. This is especially true for non-deployed military aviation units (Burke, 2018). With fewer training sessions, pilots tend to make more mistakes. All the military services report that pilots are finding it hard to meet their minimum flying hour requirements.
A problem that is mainly seen in the Army is occasioned by the Aviation Restructuring Initiative. The initiative led to the divesting of the Kiowa Warrior helicopter and its replacement with Apache helicopters that were provided by the National Guard. Since most of the service members had racked their hours flying Kiowa Warrior helicopters, they were very inexperienced as far as Apache helicopters were concerned (Burke, 2018). There was a need to train more new Apache helicopter pilots as a result. However, as the new pilots entered service, their number was far bigger than the number of available senior Apache pilots that could help further train them on the job.
Statement of the Problem
The ability of the military to meet its operational and training requirements in the long run is at risk because of the weaknesses it has had in implementing and overseeing the contracting it has done for repair and maintenance. Further, there have been deficiencies in cost management, information systems management, and the evaluation of performance metrics. There has been a shortage of skilled workers in some areas, especially in the trades related to repair and maintenance. Every year, the Department of Defense releases the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Report. This report details the shortages in RC equipment as well as the procurement plans the department has. The 2016 report showed that the department was short of $23.9 billion worth of ARNG equipment as well as $8.9 billion worth of USAR equipment. These shortages do not account for authorized substitutions (DOD, 2016). The report also points out to the fact that constraints in the military budget has led to declines in procurement funding for RC equipment and that the practice where the military transfers aging equipment to RC units from AC units has led to gaps in interoperability and capacity.
Research Question(s) and Strategy
i. What is the trend on and status of Equipment, Training, and Personnel in military aviation?
ii. What are the strategies that the Department of Defense is putting in place to overcome the challenges it is facing in military aviation as far as Equipment, Training, and Personnel are concerned?
To reach a conclusion on the two questions above, the paper will take a systematic review approach. There will be a literature search that will source for DoD documents, declassified military documents, government reports and papers, policy notes and documents covering the areas of equipment, training, and personnel in military aviation. A research will be carried out on ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. The following keywords “military aviation issues,” “ways to improve military aviation,” and “equipment, training, and personnel in military aviation” will be used to do the search. The search will look for comments and reports from military leaders and experts as well as policy briefs and documents from various government agencies that have explored military aviation. Congress has addressed various issues relating to military aviation before and its documents will be an area of focus. Further, the search will look for statistical data and information on the areas of equipment, personnel, and training in military aviation. The materials to be considered will have been published in the last ten years and will be solely in English.
Literature Review
The growing complexity in military assets calls for skilled and well-trained engineers
With new innovations and advances in science, military assets are becoming more advanced by the day. Military bodies across the world are taking delivery of complex and extremely capable fighter jets such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Big assets the size of carrier aircrafts are also posing challenges to maintenance crews. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, for instance, has an estimated 1000 miles of electrical cabling. It also has an air-conditioning plant that can sustain about 500 houses (Deal, 2019). Given such a massive size, any major maintenance overhaul can take years as was seen in the midlife refueling and complex overhaul that took four years.
With complexity constantly increasing and the number of personnel declining with time, there is bound to be maintenance lags. Military aviation is finding it a challenge having enough engineers on hand to keep their equipment in peak condition.
The Army’s Total Force Policy (ATFP) gives directions to the army to utilize an integrated system for the payment and management of personnel so as to ensure continuum of opportunities and services for joint endeavors. The NCFA recommended that cross-component assignments be increased and that a multi-year program be established to ensure the consolidation of recruitment of personnel across all functions. The Army has also made progress in the implementation of the IPPS with full implementation expected in 2020 (Pint et al., 2017). Thus far, the initiatives intended for the promotion of continuum of services have been aimed at reducing the need for paperwork.
The recommendations made by the NCFA and the objectives of the ATFP have no direct impacts on equipment but they are critical for mobilization and enabling training. RC and AC installations tend to differ with AC installations looking like cities with several on-site services and acres of land to maneuver on. In the case of ARNG, they get embedded in already existing communities (Pint et al., 2017). Therefore, it is not practical to have a one-size-fits-all approach as far as military policy is concerned.
The commercial aviation market is booming and supply is losing out to demand
The military is continuously acquiring sophisticated equipment that needs very skilled personnel to maintain. The training of maintenance personnel is an expensive affair and usually takes a long time. The problem is compounded by the fact that the military is not the only sector in need of these skilled professionals. The aviation sector is booming, especially in the Middle East. Airline operators are offering skilled maintenance personnel very attractive packages to work for them and may even poach military personnel that are not under restrictive contracts (Deal, 2019).
The supply for maintenance staff has been outpaced by the demand for such skilled labor. While specialization is still present in both training and deployment of military maintenance personnel, specialization has reduced compared to the levels that were there in the 1980s. The military is leaning towards cross-utilization more and more as mission readiness and force count reduce by the year. The current operations of the military are more technology-based than they are people-based. The military now needs very skilled personnel who can collaborate with each other (United States Government Accountability Office, 2019).
The huge logistics footprint of globalization
The shortfalls the military faces today are very significant given the fact that military engagements are becoming less and less predictable. Threats such as insurgency-based aggressions can arise unpredictably and grow very quickly almost anywhere on the globe. The ability to send a fully effective force to such areas can only be ensured by having military assets that are well maintained ready to go at a moment’s notice. Further, maintenance personnel need to accompany the assets where appropriate. The logistics of such an operation requires that the military provide food, shelter, and transport to maintenance personnel (Deal, 2019).
Increasing globalization calls for greater management of logistics. In the wars of the 19th century, there were practically no logisticians employed in wars. As new developments came, a great percentage of the military force is being staffed by people working directly in logistics (Deal, 2019). In the American military aviation sector, there are more people in logistics than there are pilots. For instance, 95% of workers in the U.S. Air Force are nonpilot roles.
Reference List
Burke, C. (2018). The Biggest Problems Facing Military Aviation, According To An Army Aviator. Task and purpose. Retrieved from https://taskandpurpose.com/the-biggest-problems-facing-military-aviation-according-to-an-army-aviator
Deal, K. (2019). Military MRO: Solving the maintenance skills shortage with augmented reality. Military embedded system. Retrieved from http://www.mil-embedded.com/articles/id/?7274
Pint, E. M., Schnaubelt, C. M., Dalzell, S., Hastings, J. L., Speed, P., & Shanley, M. G. (2017). Review of Army Total Force Policy Implementation (No. RR-1958-A). RAND ARROYO CENTER SANTA MONICA CA SANTA MONICA United States.
U.S. Department of Defense, (2016). National Guard and Reserve Equipment Report for Fiscal Year 2017. Washington, D.C.
United States Government Accountability Office, (2019). “ARMY READINESS: Progress and Challenges in Rebuilding Personnel, Equipping, and Training.” Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate. Defense Capabilities and Management.