Increased Standardization Would Reduce Costs of Ground Support Equipment for Military Aircraft

Military aircraft ground support equipment was reviewed to determine whether more commonality of support equipment was feasible and whether earlier planning during the aircraft design phase could reduce the number and kinds of this equipment entering military inventories. Each new aircraft developed for the military services results in the development of thousands of ground support equipment items, much of which performs the same function as equipment already in service.

Substantial cost savings could be realized in research and development, procurement, and logistics if ground support equipment could service more than one type of aircraft. The Department of Defense (DOD) has no organization responsible for issuing policy and guidance to the services on managing and standardizing support equipment or coordinating its development. Most support equipment research and development is geared to meeting program schedules and performance requirements for one type of aircraft. Currently, data systems contain inaccurate or outdated information on the description, reliability, capability, and application of items already in military inventories. Some data sources do not include large quantities of support equipment available in Air Force and Navy inventories; others include a wide range of equipment items, but do not list all their characteristics. Thus, no single source gives decisionmakers all the information needed to decide whether inventories already have similar equipment. Service officials believe that the large volume of items recommended by contractors at one time, insufficient staff to review them, and the complexity of the review and approval process all contribute to hasty reviews. According to service officials, the greatest drawback to more standardization is the procurement regulation requirement that procurements be competitive whenever possible. Because the services use performance standards instead of design specifications, subsequent procurements may contain items having different subsystems and components than the original.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Henry W. Connor Team: General Accounting Office: Logistics and Communications Division Phone: (202) 275-4141