US Air Force orders stand-down for safety review
The US Air Force will ground all of its aircraft for a day while it conducts a safety review following a series of deadly accidents, officials said Tuesday.
Active duty wings and their maintainers can choose when to conduct the stand-downs, though they must do so by May 21.
Pilots and crews in combat areas will be given longer.
‘I am directing this operational safety review to allow our commanders to assess and discuss the safety of our operations and to gather feedback from our Airmen who are doing the mission every day,’ Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Goldfein said.
The US military has been beset by a series of air accidents and crashes in recent years, and the rise has been shown to correlate with budget cuts introduced in 2013.
The most recent incident occurred on 2 May, when a Hercules WC-130 cargo plane belonging to the Puerto Rico Air National Guard crashed in the southern state of Georgia, killing all nine people on board.
The air force insists that, overall, it is seeing fewer mishaps but says 18 pilots and crewmen have been killed since 1 October.
During the safety review, senior officials will gather feedback from airmen and ask them to identify issues that may cause a future mishap, the air force said.
More from Defence Notes
-
![UK urged to prioritise sea, air and space over heavy armour]()
UK urged to prioritise sea, air and space over heavy armour
A report from the Council on Geostrategy argues the UK should move away from a traditional balanced force and shift investment to naval, air and space capabilities, backed by a larger fleet of attack submarines and deeper AUKUS integration.
-
![Thales: deployment speed to determine winners in ‘production versus production’ era]()
Thales: deployment speed to determine winners in ‘production versus production’ era
At its technology summit in London, attended by Shephard, Thales UK examined the importance of speed to delivery, the growing focus on cross-domain capabilities and how procurement reform could be crucial for future battlefield advantage.
-
![Orchestrating operational readiness across every defence domain]()
Orchestrating operational readiness across every defence domain
Are all systems ready for the next mission? Have upgrades been applied? Are all assets aligned to deploy together, on time and fully prepared? In modern defence operations, readiness is no longer measured platform by platform. It is measured by how well people, assets, data and decisions move together — across land, sea and air.
-
![Global tensions drive defence supply chain scrutiny]()
Global tensions drive defence supply chain scrutiny
Governments worldwide are scrambling to decouple defence supply chains from dependency upon strategic rivals, but countries could struggle to do it all themselves.
