Flying Hours

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Navy's flying hour program to determine: (1) what types of aviators are flying carrier-based aircraft; (2) the amounts and types of flying performed by such aviators; and (3) the relevancy of the flying to operations and training.

GAO found that: (1) aviators permanently assigned to carrier-based fleet squadrons that periodically deploy to ships and overseas bases used most of the flight time allocated to the flying hour program; (2) aviators assigned to Navy carrier and Marine Corps air wings, functional wings, and major commands flew on a more limited basis; (3) fleet squadrons used the largest number of flying hours to train before deployment and to conduct air operations during deployment; (4) flying hours reported for individual aviators in the Naval Flight Record Subsystem database frequently differed from the flying hours entered in their log books; and (5) the amount and type of training aviators received adequately prepared them for deployment, but limited training resources hindered training and aviators' ability to effectively attain and maintain mission area proficiency.