-You make more money on a single 3-month deployment than an entire year working CONUS. However, these deployments have become very sparse, only occurring maybe once every 1.5 years (it used to be 1-2+ times a year, prior to the loss of Afghanistan). Your hourly compensation with this job is reduced, because in theory the deployments make up for the lower CONUS wages (if it was a non-deployment, CONUS-only role, you would be making about an extra $15/hour or roughly another $30,000 a year). You are effectively being short-changed due to this technicality, which is rather immoral of the company. They should ammend the contract in order to account for the loss of income from reduced deployment sites/opportunities.
-The only CONUS locations are at Hurlburt Field and Cannon AFB. The latter isn't really worth moving to, especially when you consider the lower pay stemming from a lack of deployments.
-The logistics of getting required replacement parts is extremely hampered by production bottlenecks and aging components. The whole system is borderline unprofessional. Cannibalizing parts from other systems has become increasingly common.
-The prime contractor (AEVEX is subcontracted to SNC) seems to be pretty disorganized when planning maintenance or communicating, which can cause redundant work or unnecessary inefficiencies. They also appear to treat their employees somewhat poorly (punishing groups that weren't involved in mishaps, overworking understaffed shifts or requiring weekend duty, cutting benefits pretty significantly etc).
-The work facilities/office aren't in the best condition, the heating/cooling/insulation is poor, there's no internet provided by the company, and MANY bugs get into the office.
-The overall company culture seems to be slightly skewing in a poor direction. Our rapid growth has fueled a gradual culture shift, one that doesn't genuinely emphasize it's employees to the extent that it once did. Things feel more corporate now.
-L3Harris won the contract for the aircraft that will replace ours, so this program/contract may end within the next few years. There's no telling if there will be any continuity or not.
