\\n
\\nMinister Parly sought to implement wide ranging plans to cut costs and improve the air force\'s combat readiness. France\'s current maintenance program is extremely complex, bureaucratic and inefficient. In France can take 30 different contracts to get a single helicopter ready for combat. France\'s maintenance issues appear to be a symptom of a larger malady affecting leading Western air forces. The U.S. Navy and Marines are also reportedly unable to operate the majority of their fleets, and are forced to resort to \'cannibalizing\' aircraft to transfer parts and keep a fraction in service. Indeed, with Western powers themselves responsible for the vast majority of military interventions abroad, the chances of coming under attack themselves are negligible and this may a major cause of low combat readiness.
\\n
\\nWhere France stands out is that, unlike the United States, U.K., and Germany, the quantify of its pilots and training have not suffered. While British Typhoon pilots have been overwhelmingly bested in combat tests by far inferior fighters such as the Pakistani Air Force\'s F-16, and the U.S. Navy has found its most capable platforms bested by a number of unsophisticated adversaries such as the second generation F-5 of the Chilean Air Force, France\'s Air Force continues to perform well in combat testing. Indeed, though its capabilities are relatively limited, French Rafale fighters have managed to best dedicated U.S. air superiority platforms such as the F-15 and F-22 in the air, with the quality of French pilots making up for the discrepancy in the fighters\' capabilities which strongly favoured the U.S. While France has maintained a high level of pilot training, to its credit exceeding those of its leading Western allies, its lack of effective maintenance threatens to undermine this achivement.\",\"article_featured\":true,\"article_e_choice\":false,\"article_from_contributors\":false,\"article_cover\":\"https:\\/\\/militarywatchmagazine.com\\/m\\/articles\\/2017\\/12\\/27\\/covers\\/cover_5a45e6f288f946_12665376.jpg\",\"article_cover_tag\":\"French Air Force Dassault Rafale Multirole Fighter\",\"article_posted\":true,\"article_redirect\":null,\"article_cover_credit\":\"\",\"categories\":[{\"id\":7,\"category_name\":\"North America, Western Europe and Oceania\",\"category_identifier\":\"north_America_western_europe_and_oceania\",\"category_description\":\"Coverage of military affairs in NATO and Five Eyes member states, as well as Switzerland,\\r\\n\",\"i_order\":4,\"section\":1},{\"id\":2,\"category_name\":\"Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft\",\"category_identifier\":\"aircraft_and_anti_aircraft\",\"category_description\":\"Coverage of military affairs related to aerial warfare technologies.\",\"i_order\":6,\"section\":2}],\"articles_images\":[{\"id\":424,\"article\":\"70129\",\"image\":{\"id\":531,\"link\":\"https:\\/\\/militarywatchmagazine.com\\/m\\/articles\\/2017\\/12\\/27\\/images\\/image_5a47c8c37445c5_00034667.jpg\",\"credit\":\"\"},\"tag\":\"French Air Force Dassault Rafale Multirole Fighter\"},{\"id\":425,\"article\":\"70129\",\"image\":{\"id\":532,\"link\":\"https:\\/\\/militarywatchmagazine.com\\/m\\/articles\\/2017\\/12\\/27\\/images\\/image_5a47c8c37455c4_87666227.jpg\",\"credit\":\"\"},\"tag\":\"French Air Force Dassault Rafale Multirole Fighter\"},{\"id\":426,\"article\":\"70129\",\"image\":{\"id\":533,\"link\":\"https:\\/\\/militarywatchmagazine.com\\/m\\/articles\\/2017\\/12\\/27\\/images\\/image_5a47c8c3746771_10706253.jpg\",\"credit\":\"\"},\"tag\":\"French Air Force Dassault Rafale Multirole Fighter\"}],\"tags\":[{\"id\":663,\"tag\":\"Rafale\"},{\"id\":557,\"tag\":\"French Air Force\"},{\"id\":664,\"tag\":\"French Military\"},{\"id\":53,\"tag\":\"NATO\"},{\"id\":173,\"tag\":\"F-16\"},{\"id\":230,\"tag\":\"F-5\"},{\"id\":20,\"tag\":\"F-22\"},{\"id\":64,\"tag\":\"F-15\"},{\"id\":665,\"tag\":\"Chilean Air Force\"},{\"id\":35,\"tag\":\"U.S. Navy\"}]}');