re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Everything. We’re sending babies next.

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Soviet aircraft maintenance doctrine focused on intense specialization and replacement of major systems instead of field repair. While the Soviets (of the 1980s anyway) are long (27/x)

gone, the aircraft itself was designed for this style of maintenance. This is a product of short-tenured conscript maintenance personnel which took up 70% of their air force. In other words, it was designed to thrive on conscript maintenance. Anything requiring repair was (28/x)

sent far to the rear to the factory. By contrast, western aircraft are & have been maintained by non-conscript technicians with a lot of formal education lasting months before even being granted the title “apprentice” (cant do anything without direct supervision), (29/x)

years before “journeyman” (can complete tasks alone or with an apprentice group, but final work must be inspected by a “craftsman” or higher), and 5+ years before becoming a “craftsman” or able to perform all tasks without supervision & can supervise other, less experienced(30/x)

technicians) as well as large and wide-encompassing specialties. This leads to the ability to provide field repairs (to an extent) & to be able to branch out &gain knowledge in other specialties. Crew Chiefs will assist Engines in removing the engine for overhaul. Avionics(31/x)

and Weapons personnel will troubleshoot Armament systems & repair wiring. Again, this is not to say that Ukrainians cant learn but the design and functionality of each aircraft was geared toward the ability of the people maintaining it. They can most certainly learn it (32/x)

but it takes time. If your radar malfunctions in a MiG, you play “swap a box”: radar, control module, avionics boxes. You have plenty of all of these items on hand or close, and while inconvenient, is logistically do-able from any of a number of depots scattered across the (33/x)

country. Radar malfunctions on an F-16, sure you can play “swap-a-box” but your logistics chain is much longer & you cant haul an entire squadron of spare aircraft parts from one location to another because its all you have. To spare your ballooning logistics chain, you’re (34/x)

better off having specialists who can trouble shoot the issue to one, certain, spot, & replace just what needs replaced without guessing. We haven’t even delved into the technical data (instructions for how to do LITERALLY EVERYTHING), which is all written in English, even(35/x)

for Polish aircraft. & to be clear, no, unless you absolutely must, youre not going to pull the wings off an aircraft and ship it on a flatbed to Poland for repair. That is about your worst option. Not only is your follow-on maintenance a nightmare but doing that for every(36/x)

little thing would be… well… just no. Hydro checks, flight control checks, armament checks, 1760 and coaxal cable repair and splicing, operational check flights, functional check flights… I mean youre talking hundreds of hours of repair and inspections. Leave it at that.(37/x)

Poland would be great for scheduled phased maintenance and in-depth repair but not for every little thing and realistically only if the aircraft is capable of flying there, everything else will need done in Ukr, especially if the aircraft is grounded. (38/x)

This isn’t a Patriot battery. This isn’t an armored vehicle. What happens when you screw up the maintenance on a Patriot launcher? It doesn’t work. What happens when you drop a screw in the engine bay of a Leopard? It’ll be there next time you tear it apart. (39/x)

What happens when you flub the maintenance or drop a bolt in an F-16? The pilot may die and the aircraft may turn into a multi-million dollar lawn dart. Maintenance on these things is SERIOUS business. Do you know how much time on airframe your average USAF (40/x)

Staff Sergeant Crew Chief Craftsman has on the F-16? 10-12 years. When moving from one airframe to another, i.e. F-15 to F-16, even as an experienced craftsman, training takes at LEAST 12 months before you’re allowed to perform maintenance by yourself without follow-on (41/x)

inspection because the systems are so different and these aircraft are both western. There are zero parts commonality from legacy UAF aircraft, nor logistics infrastructure for F-16s in Ukraine. The avionics & flight controls are more intricate and complex. The repairs and (42/x)

tolerances more exacting. Again any mistake in any of these systems and you risk the pilot and the aircraft from the moment the chocks are pulled. I had an Iraqi maintenance officer, experienced on Soviet aircraft mis-time the feed chute on the M61A1 gatling gun during (43/x)

an install. “This is okay,” he insisted, “it is one tooth, many gears, all will be fine.” No, there is no “give” in these systems. There is no buffer for mistakes. Its right, or the plane may go down. A mis-timed feed chute on a gun WILL lead to the unplanned (44/x)

and rapid disassembly of the entire 20mm system, all those pieces are now FOD. All these pieces are now rolling around above the single engine bay. Heroic Ukrainian pilots deserve better, so do their resilient maintainers. They deserve to be trained right, to the best of (45/x)

the allies ability. I am not downplaying the awesome ability of Ukrainians, I would be saying these same things regardless of who is taking this project on.

The MiG-29 averages about 11 hrs of maintenance for every ONE hr of flight. The F-16? A whopping increase to 18.5 (46/x)

maintenance hrs for every one hr of flight time. These are per aircraft with experienced crews. These figures also assume decent airframe hours on the aircraft. There are no “cherry” low flight time F-16s for Ukraine. Any they get will be worn and require even more (47/x)

specialized maintenance. You can forget AMARG F-16s from the Boneyard in Tuscon too. While they are older models with less capability, aside from the handful kept in ready storage to replace unexpected losses, the remainder would require MONTHS to regenerate to combat ready(48/x)

status. In reality, the F-16s that Ukraine may get in the short term are high-hour, maintenance intensive Block 20, 30 or 40 models from European allies. (50/x)

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He has since deleted his confirmation.

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And here's a 55-tweet thread talking about the magnitude of the challenge of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) control and especially the difficulty of maintaining these older F-16s.

Wow. Read the whole thing to get a sense of FOD control, but here's the part about maintenance:And here's a 55-tweet thread talking about the magnitude of the challenge of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) control and especially the difficulty of maintaining these older F-16s.

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Everything. We’re sending babies next.

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The Israelis flew a pair of F22's and circled Tehran a few times. Zero detection from any air defense system, including brand new S400's

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Israel doesn’t have any F-22’s.

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