Repairing F-15s could cost $50 million

[unhappycamper]

Repairing F-15s could cost $50 million
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 29, 2008 7:16:12 EST

The Air Force’s F-15 fleet will require about $50 million worth of repairs to replace faulty structural components, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said Wednesday.

Testifying about the service’s fiscal 2009 budget proposal before the House Armed Services Committee, Wynne said the money will be used for depot maintenance to replace longerons, the metal support beams inside the jets’ forward fuselage that support the cockpit assembly and reinforce the cockpit.

Wynne did not say how many aircraft would require the repairs, and he said he is not yet sure whether the repairs will require trips to the F-15 depot at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., or if they could be done between flights by “depot SWAT teams.”

Lawmakers on the panel said they are concerned that seven F-15s have crashed in the past nine months, including the Nov. 2 crash of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C that resulted in nearly the entire F-15 fleet being grounded for more than two months.

In that incident, the longeron failed and the aircraft broke in two while on a training flight.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/02/airforce_f15_repairs_022908w/



uhc comment: $50,000,000 is less than the $355,000,000 cost of an F-22 Raptor or the $239,000,000 cost of an F-35 Lightining.

[ixion]

1. they get BILLIONS from us everyday

you would think they'd be able to scrape together a paltry 50 million with coming to beg... but then, that's what the military brass likes to do best: beg for more money to fund their endless war machine. :grr: