Korean Air wins maintenance contract from United States Air Force

Good grief. I can't believe we are outsourcing our freaking MILITARY now. What the hel....

...

Oh. Wait.

Maintenance such as heavy checks and some heavy inspections have long been contracted to airlines and/or companies for overseas based aircraft over the decades. Korean Airlines, at their Kimhae Airbase facility, used to do checks on Kadena-based F-15s, as well as Osan based A-10s (they may still do). During the Vietnam war, A-1 Skyraider planes were eventually getting their heavy mx inspections done by China Airlines out of Taipei.
 
Maintenance such as heavy checks and some heavy inspections have long been contracted to airlines and/or companies for overseas based aircraft over the decades. Korean Airlines, at their Kimhae Airbase facility, used to do checks on Kadena-based F-15s, as well as Osan based A-10s (they may still do). During the Vietnam war, A-1 Skyraider planes were eventually getting their heavy mx inspections done by China Airlines out of Taipei.
Oh, I know. It makes financial and logistical sense, and has for a long time, for both civilian and military operations.
 
Financial and logistical sense shouldn't be used in the same sentence as "military maintenance" IMO. It's one of those things that you keep in house for a reason.
 
Financial and logistical sense shouldn't be used in the same sentence as "military maintenance" IMO. It's one of those things that you keep in house for a reason.
I think that they get a pass, here. Doing heavy checks and inspections, I would assume, involve an awful lot of manpower and equipment. I get what you are saying, but if they can cut the cost of the checks and inspections by, say, half through outsourcing as opposed to having to ship an entire maintenance department and their equipment over for checks, that sounds like good dollars and sense (pun intended) to me.
 
I think that they get a pass, here. Doing heavy checks and inspections, I would assume, involve an awful lot of manpower and equipment. I get what you are saying, but if they can cut the cost of the checks and inspections by, say, half through outsourcing as opposed to having to ship an entire maintenance department and their equipment over for checks, that sounds like good dollars and sense (pun intended) to me.

I see your point on saving dollars. But in my mind, it gets trumped by the sadtey factor of knowing exactly who is working on our boys jets. What kind of security programs are in place to do background checks on a foreign countries employees. What kind of oversight do we have, and what is that costing us? It's not a simple matter of switching it over, and I'd like to see some real facts on the cost/benefit of all of this. Until then with what I can read, this doesn't seem to make a whole bunch of "sense."
 
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