Air Force Procurement

More B-1B Spares Should Have Been Bought Directly From Manufacturers Gao ID: NSIAD-88-13 November 18, 1987

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the extent to which the Air Force broke out B-1B bomber spare parts for procurement directly from the manufacturers to avoid costs of overhead and profits incurred on parts bought from prime contractors.

GAO found that: (1) of 34 spares included in the Air Force Logistics Command's (AFLC) Expanded Advanced Buy (EAB) acquisition concept, 25 qualified for direct purchase; (2) the Air Force did not purchase any of the 34 items directly from the manufacturers; (3) potential price reductions resulting from breakout actions ranged from 36 to 62 percent at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center; (4) the Air Force did not take advantage of opportunities to buy initial and replenishment spares directly from the manufacturers; (5) breakout required additional administrative lead time and paperwork; (6) pressure to have spare parts available by the initial operational capability (IOC) date affected B-1B breakout efforts; (7) the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center continued to purchase items from prime contractors after breakout; and (8) AFLC issued a policy directive on provisioned-items orders prohibiting abusive and improper use of such orders.

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