Defense Depot Maintenance: Privatization and the Debate Over the Public-Private Mix
Abstract
Depot maintenance is a key part of the total DOD logistics effort and is a vast undertaking, supporting millions of equipment items, 53,000 combat vehicles, 514,000 wheeled vehicles, 372 ships, and 17,300 aircraft of over 100 different models. Depot maintenance requires extensive shop facilities, specialized equipment, and highly skilled technical and engineering personnel to perform major overhaul of weapon systems and equipment, to completely rebuild parts and end items, to modify systems and equipment by applying new or improved components, or to manufacture parts unavailable from the private sector. DOD's depot maintenance facilities and equipment are valued at over $50 billion. DOD annually spends about $15 billion - or about 6 percent of its $243 billion fiscal year 1996 budget - on depot maintenance activities. About $2 billion of this amount includes contractor logistics support, interim contractor support, and funds for labor associated with the installation of some major modifications and parts of software maintenance, which are contracted to the private sector using procurement, rather than operation and maintenance funds. The DOD depot system, which is actually comprised of four systems, employs about 89,000 DOD civilian personnel, ranging from laborers to highly trained technicians to engineers and top-level managers. Our recent report on closing maintenance depots provides a history of each of the services' depot systems. While the number of depot personnel has been reduced by over 40 percent relative to when the DOD depot system was at its peak in 1987, depot facilities and equipment have not been similarly downsized. At the time of the 1995 BRAC process, the DOD depot system had 40 percent excess capacity, based on an analysis of maximum potential capacity for a 5-day week, one 8-hour-per-day shift operation. The Air Force, which had not closed a U.S. depot since the 1960s, had 45 percent excess capacity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 16, 1996
- Accession Number
- AD1171886
Entities
People
- David J. Warren
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office