NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Air Force must focus its limited maintenance resources on aircraft that are capable of surviving in a contested environment, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday.

In a keynote address at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air Space Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Meink highlighted the service’s lackluster aircraft readiness as one of its major challenges.

“We have some of the best aircraft,” Meink said, citing the F-22 and F-35 fighters and the B-2 bomber as examples.

The scope of the readiness challenge “surprised me a bit,” Meink said.

“I knew there was a readiness challenge,” Meink said. “I didn’t appreciate how significant that readiness challenge was.”

The Air Force’s aircraft readiness rates have steadily trended down for

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