Some foreign media recently released a ranking list of air force strength around the world in 2021, in which the strength of the U.S. air force still ranks first. The ranking shows that the main reason why the US Air Force ranks high is the large number of advanced fighters and the relative balance of various technical indicators. However, some US media recently gave "bad comments" to the US air force. According to the website of the US Air Force magazine, in 2021, almost all the key combat effectiveness indicators of the US Air Force fighters are declining. US Air Force f-35a fighter According to the website of air force magazine, "mission capability rate" is an indicator to measure the combat readiness of fighters, which is related to the ability of fighters to perform at least one core mission. For example, F-16 missions include air combat, ground attack or suppression of opponent air defense systems. Previously, the US air force required the "mission capability rate" of most of its fighters to be between 75% and 80%, but none of them reached this level until the end of fiscal 2021. It is reported that from 2020 to 2021, the "mission capability rate" of the U.S. Air Force f-35a fleet decreased from 76.07% to 68.8%, due to the problems of more and more f-35a fighter engines. Over the past year, engine shortages have grounded about 40 f-35a fighters. The U.S. F-35 Joint Program Office predicts that this situation may last for several years. In fiscal year 2021, the "mission capability rate" of the U.S. Air Force F-15E fleet decreased by about 3 percentage points, from 69.21% to 66.24%, and there was a continuous downward trend. In fy2019, this indicator was 71.29%. The "mission capability rate" of f-15c fleet decreased from 71.93% to 69.48%, and that of f-15d fleet decreased from 70.52% to 68.56%. The U.S. Air Force f-15c fleet has exceeded its planned service life and is plagued by many movement restrictions and parts shortages. The "mission capability rate" of the U.S. Air Force F-16C / D fleet decreased from 73.9% to 71.53%. The f-16d fleet decreased from 72.11% to 69.32%. The "mission capability rate" of F-22 stealth fighter was 50.81%, about 1 percentage point lower than that in fiscal year 2020 and roughly the same as that in 2019. In addition, according to the 2022 U.S. military strength index report released by the heritage foundation, an American think tank, the strength of the U.S. air force can only be regarded as "barely qualified", and the combat readiness is classified as "weak". The report believes that the decommissioning speed of US Air Force fighters exceeds that of new aircraft, which will restrict the play of the air force's combat capability. In addition, the US Air Force has a long-term shortage of pilots and a serious shortage of flight time, which will also affect the number and quality of air combat forces. In 2020, the US Air Force's pilot dispatch rate will be 1.5 times a week and the annual flight time will be 131 hours. According to the requirements of the US air force, the dispatch rate should reach 3 times a week and the annual flight time should reach 200 hours. The report also pointed out that the combat readiness rate of US Air Force fighters is low, and the number of fighters that can be put into operation is less than the actual number of fighters. Taking F-22 fighters as an example, according to paper data, the US air force is equipped with 186 such fighters. Among them, 28 are used to train pilots, 16 are used to test equipment, and some are in maintenance status. At present, there are 74 F-22 fighters that can be dispatched at any time, and the intact rate is only 52%. (outlook new era)