RAMON LOPEZ / WASHINGTON DC
US military readiness has dipped as spares for ageing US aircraft remain scarce
The 11 September terrorist air attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and the subsequent sabre rattling clearly show that the US military must be prepared to wage war at short notice. But all the military services say they are facing readiness problems due to a shortage of the spare parts needed to keep geriatric aircraft in the air.
The US Air Force's combat readiness rate, for example, has hit its lowest point in 14 years, largely because of the higher maintenance requirements for ageing in-service fighters and transport aircraft, says USAF Secretary James Roche, who believes "our dominance of the full spectrum of operations tends to overshadow what has happened to our readiness".
Responding across a full spectrum of operations requires that a number of USAF units are ready to deploy in the first 30 days of a conflict. The USAF has set a readiness requirement of 92%, but actual combat readiness rates slipped 23 percentage points, to 68%, last April.
Roche says flying hours have remained relatively constant over the past five years, but maintenance costs have increased by over 45% after inflation. "Older aircraft are simply more difficult to maintain as mechanical failures become less predictable, repairs become more complicated, and parts become harder to come by and more expensive," he says.
The average age of the USAF's fleet is 22 years, with the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress at the top of the table at 39 years. Aerial tankers average 37.6 years. The average age of the Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bombers is only six years, but some Lockheed C-141 Starlifters have been hauling troops and cargo around for 34 years.
The sharp fall in aircraft procurement will only worsen the problem. The average age of the USAF's 6,300 aircraft will be 25 years in 2007, increasing to 30 in 2020. The USAF would have to boost aircraft purchases by about 170 a year to reverse the age trend, but this is not the plan, and the readiness decay will continue.
When the supply pipeline suffers shortages, mechanics must either cannibalise parts from other aircraft to serve immediate needs, or park the aircraft while they wait for parts. Such is the case at Langley AFB, Virginia, the home of the 1st Fighter Wing, where keeping the air combat unit's 65 Boeing F-15C Eagle fighters combat-ready is increasingly difficult and costly.
Winning at a cost
While recent improvements in spare parts funding are "turning this situation around", say USAF officials, maintenance issues were behind the decision earlier this year to slash the Rockwell B-1B Lancer bomber fleet by one-third, from 93 to 60 aircraft. "The B-1B is an aircraft that has performed well, but has performed well at increased cost. We have been unable to put the necessary modifications in the aircraft to continue to keep it viable in a combat situation. Sixty aircraft that are fully capable are more effective than to us than 93 which are difficult to maintain," they add. The plan is to give the remainingB-1Bs much needed offensive and defensive avionics upgrades.
The US military's shortfall in spare parts has not escaped the attention of US lawmakers, who two years ago asked US General Accounting Office (GAO) auditors to take an independent look at the situation. For the USAF, the GAO reviewed the Boeing E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, the Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy transport and powerplants for the F-15 and Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters.
It was no surprise the GAO found that spares shortages has kept the USAF from meeting mission-capable goals. During fiscal year 2000, for example, 23 of 126 C-5s were not available for missions because of the problem. All agreed that more spares were needed than were anticipated and they were difficult to acquire.
The GAO, however, is encouraged that the USAF and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) have implemented initiatives to ease shortages of spares for the systems.
The US Transportation Command and the DLA are in the process of re-designing and streamlining the US Department of Defense's global distribution system through the so-called Strategic Distribution Management Initiative (SDMI). Patterned after the US Army's Velocity Management programme, SDMI is geared to "break down current functional stovepipes to create a synchronised, scheduled and integrated end-to-end distribution management process," say DoD officials.
Roche says the USAF's situation is improving now that funding for spares is flowing through the pipeline. The USAF spent an additional $2 billion for spare parts over the past two years, replenishing inventories drained during Operation Allied Force in the Balkans. The fiscal year 2002 spending plan includes increased funding to reduce the spare repair backlog.
In July, the USAF chose six contractors to handle the Flexible Acquisition and Sustainment Tool (FAST) programme, a seven year, $7.4 billion project geared to the sustainment of weapons and support systems, including aircraft modifications, critical spares and repair services. The contractors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Science Applications International, will perform their tasks at: Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah; Oklahoma Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma; Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center; Robins AFB, Georgia; and other locations.
In August, Keane Federal Systems, a leading business and information technology consulting firm, was picked to build the Integrated Logistics System-Supply (ILS-S) for the USAF. As part of the $127 million contract, the firm will streamline the supply chain. ILS-S will handle inventory accounting, ordering and financial management. "The supply system will provide the means to order and track critical raw materials, such as parts required for aircraft maintenance, with greater efficiency," according to the US firm.
Two years ago, the DoD earmarked $500 million for the DLA to purchase spares for all the US military services between fiscal years 2001 and 2004. The US Army will use part of its share to rebuild stocks for the Boeing AH-64 Apache gunship, Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter and Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavylift machine. GAO investigators say spares shortages for the three helicopters "adversely affected operations and led to insufficient maintenance practices that lowered morale of maintenance personnel".
The GAO continues: "While the helicopters generally met their mission-capable goals, indicating that parts shortages have not affected their mission capability, supply availability rates and the cannibalisation of parts from one aircraft to another indicate that spare parts shortages have indeed been a problem."
US Army mechanics were found to face similar problems to USAF personnel, say the GAO auditors. Shortages of 90 helicopter parts were caused by greater than anticipated demand for items, delays in obtaining parts from contractors, and problems with overhaul and maintenance.
Improving situation
A DoD official who wrestles with logistics and readiness issues daily says the situation is improving. "We think we've taken the steps that will mitigate the problem. But in the forecasting business, you only operate with the best information on hand. Only two years from now do you know what actually happened," he says.
The GAO criticised the US Navy for not adequately keeping track of spares deficiencies. Auditors say the USN's Product Quality Deficiency Reporting Programme "has been largely ineffective in gathering the data needed for analyses so that navy managers can determine the full extent of spare parts quality deficiencies affecting maintenance activities. Without this data, managers lose opportunities to initiate important corrective and preventive action with parts and suppliers," they add.
The GAO blamed the programme's shortcomings on a lack of management emphasis, limited training and little incentive to report deficiencies, and competing priorities for staff resources. Auditors found there was an under-reporting of parts deficiencies identified at the time of installation. Navy mechanics failed to track and record the causes of premature parts failures.
The GAO investigators recommend better management oversight "to determine the causes, trends and responsibilities for parts failures and achieve greater compliance with joint-service requirements, including reporting on parts that fail before the end of their design life." DoD and USN officials agree, and add that changes are being implemented. Officials say the DoD-wide spares initiatives are beginning to having an impact. "I think we're on the right track. We've gained the support of the US Congress. Everyone knows what the problems are, and we all agree on how to solve them," the DoD logistics official adds.
Source: Flight International
