Flying Hours Key to Readiness …

Across all categories—excepting reconnaissance—the Active-duty Air Force flew fewer hours in fiscal 2021 than it did the previous year. 

Flying hours are key to readiness, and are a good overall barometer of other readiness factors such as pilot and spare parts availability, speed of throughput at depots, and operations budgets. Flying hours are also affected by combat operations. Inadequate flying hours reduce pilot proficiency and correlate with increased accident rates.  

According to Air Force figures, pilot flying hours across all types of aircraft in the Active-duty force averaged 10.1 hours per month in fiscal 2021, down from 10.9 hours in 2020. In 2019, flying hours averaged just 6.8 per month— down sharply from 10.7 in 2018. Hours for 2022 have yet to be provided. 

The service offered no comments about the drop in flight time. 

At an 01 June, Heritage Foundation event, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, “I’m not happy with where we are” [on flying hours]. Kendall said Obama’s 2011 Budget Control Act forced the Air Force to restrict hours for a decade, and the service “never recovered.” 

Improving technology has permitted the Air Force to shift much of its training to simulators which—aside from being far less costly than real-world flying—permit pilots to experience and contend with emergencies that cannot be practically or safely replicated in an actual, flying aircraft. Predictably, The Air Force states its figures for flying hours are predicated upon real-world flying only, and do not include simulator time.     

The Active fighter pilot community saw a big drop in hours, from 8.7 to 6.1 from 2020-’21. But Guard fighter pilots got more hours, up from 6.4 to 7.3. Reserve fighter pilots also saw an increase, from 5.5 to 6.7, from 2020-2021.

The drop in fighter pilot hours is likely due in part to the Air Force’s chronic shortage of these aviators. Sources report that 1,000 of the 1,700 pilots the Air Force is short are fighter pilots, with about 700 of those vacancies in the Active Duty ranks, 200 in the Guard, and 100 in the USAF Reserve. The Air Force has said that much of its pilot shortage is due to a paucity of rated officers available for staff jobs, but that some cockpits are indeed going unfilled.

FMI: https://www.af.mil