By Anthony Robbins
Feb 17, 2021
The United States leads the world in military assets with 40,000 armored vehicles, 13,000 aircraft and nearly 500 ships. Maintaining all these assets to ensure they’re combat-ready costs the Defense Department an estimated $71 billion annually. The sustainment for just one program -- the F-35 Lightning II fighter -- is projected to cost a whopping $1 trillion over the next 60 years.
Sustainment is not only expensive, it’s essential for safety. We’ve lost 224 brave pilots and air crew members as a result of thousands of military aviation accidents since 2013, according to a congressional report released in December 2020.
The National Commission on Military Aviation Safety spent five years examining these accidents to develop a set of key recommendations. While the report cites several contributing factors, including funding issues and airman fatigue, it specifically highlights artificial intelligence as a means of improving aviation safety.