Air Force 'diversity' hurts readiness

 Daniel Greenfield:

Chief of Staff Charles Brown and Chief Master Sergeant Kaleth Wright have made diversity and wokeness into the core of the Air Force's mission. Meanwhile the planes won't fly.

Brown has spent the past few years unleashing worthless diversity reviews to try and blame the Air Force for a supposed lack of diversity, even though it now has a black chief of staff and a black top enlisted leader. The military justification for their divisive shenanigans was that diversity equated somehow to military readiness. How is the Air Force’s readiness?

The latest numbers show that the Air Force has made no progress in improving the readiness of its planes with a rate of 71.5% or 7 out of 10 planes in 2021.

The United States Air Force is supposed to have mission capable rates of 75% to 80%, but about the only aircraft that meet that criteria are the unmanned drones. The high ratings of the drones disguise the fact that the actual numbers, when broken down by aircraft, are worse.

The F-35As, the fifth generation fighters that would be crucial in countering any sizable aerial engagement with Communist China, dropped catastrophically from 76% to 68.8%.

Last year, the Biden administration boasted about the largest deployment of F-22 stealth fighters in the Pacific. Unfortunately their readiness hovers at around 50%.

Deploying fighters with the readiness rate of a coin flip won’t impress Communist China.

The F-15E's, the workhorse fighter we rely on in every theater, is down from 69% to 66%, the F-15C are down to below 70%, and the situation is expected to worsen due to parts shortages. The C-130 Hercules, a backbone of our operation, has slipped below 70%. The CV-22 Osprey fell from 54% to 50%. The B-1 Lancer fell from 52% to 40%, and, at its worst, was at 10%.

All in all, only one Air Force aircraft actually met mission-capable goals: the venerable UH-1N Huey which is three years older than Chief of Staff Brown.

That’s not just a disgrace, it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.

The United States is at risk of entering a military confrontation with China that we are not ready for. The Chinese have built up their own air force using stolen American technology. Meanwhile after generations of dream planes and endless billions spent, the Air Force still remains reliant on outdated aircraft that are over 50 years old in some cases and which are harder to support.
...

Diversity should never replace merit in the military.  The lives of the troops and the country are at stake.  Imposing a diversity standard for diversity's sake makes about as much sense as the NBA requiring that teams should also play short white guys who can't jump.