The US General Accounting Office (GAO) says that the US Air Force made the right decision when it shifted Lockheed C-5 Galaxy depot maintenance from the closing San Antonio Air Logistics Centre, Texas, to the USAF-run Warner Robins Air Logistics Centre in Georgia.
US lawmakers asked the GAO to review the procedures used by the USAF in picking the US Government-owned maintenance centre over private aircraft maintenance operations as the San Antonio centre was due to close. Lockheed Martin, among others, bid for the work.
The GAO has concluded that the competition provided an equal opportunity for all bidders to compete without regard to where the work could be performed. It also said that the USAF did not deviate from established laws covering the award of maintenance contracts. Based on USAF assumptions and conditions at the time of the award, the selection resulted in the lowest total cost to the US Department of Defense, the GAO adds.
Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, says that an $86 million, 18-month contract it has signed to support C-5 maintenance at Warner Robins may lead to a larger, wide-ranging contract to support all of the USAF's C-5s and well as its C-141s and C-130s.
Source: Flight International
