Black Hawk Logistics Support Should Have Been Better and Questions Exist Regarding Future Support

GAO reviewed the effectiveness of the Army's planned logistical support for the recently fielded UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter.

GAO stated that the Black Hawk has met important design criteria for mean time flight-hours between system failures and maintenance staff-hours per flight-hour and has nearly met the design criteria for reliability. However, the Army is having trouble supporting the Black Hawk. Supply and maintenance problems have prevented the helicopter from meeting the Army's 80-percent, mission-capable standard. Many of the current support problems are due to managers' not adequately carrying out their basic logistics responsibilities for: (1) sufficiently monitoring contractors' operations to identify and correct problems in a timely manner; (2) emphasizing the importance of the contractors' logistics data analysis and getting good data in a timely manner; and (3) insuring that the contractors provide and that the Army maintains the data needed to accurately determine parts requirements. GAO believes that the logistics support problems discussed point up the need for close and continuing management attention to ensure that the Army will be able to meet acceptable mission-capable rates for the Black Hawk.