[Not Mil Aircrew, but spent 7 yrs at Warton as an apprentoid / avionics devpt on Tonkas]
From my experience, there is scope for over-maintaining aircraft.
On avionics LRUs, repeatedly removing them to put them through 3rd line testing causes wear and tear on the connectors (which are frequently lifed for 500 mate / break cycles), causing a potential issue with over maintenance. At the time of design, 500 cycles probably seemed excessive for something with a 10,000 hr MTBF!
On mechanical items, all the opening / closing of Dzus fasteners on panels causes wear. These then have to be de-riveted and replaced, which often means having to over-drill and use larger rivets. Once that's happened a few times, then the whole panel needs changing.
Borescoping engines means lots of access panels to remove, causing increased wear and tear (plus the risk of damage to the turbines).
Engine replacement based on mag chip sampling - maybe safer to do this based on the cost of not doing so, but are engines replaced with an excessive safety margin??
Just a few ideas - ignore them if you will!!
