Air Force Logistics

Increased Costs for Spare Parts Safety Levels Are Not Justified Gao ID: NSIAD-90-148 August 23, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Air Force's justification for and implementation of a new model for computing safety-level requirements for aircraft spare parts.

GAO found that: (1) the Air Force Logistics Command's (AFLC) prediction that the new model could achieve higher aircraft availability rates at little or no increased cost did not appear to be valid, since requirements increased by about $482 million after the model's implementation; (2) the Air Force did not analyze the causes for the increased requirements or the resulting increase in procurement and repair costs; (3) the Air Force cited factors other than the model that could have contributed to the increased safety-level requirements; (4) the Air Force reported satisfaction with its ability to perform needed missions and has neither requested nor justified an increase in mission-capable rates; (5) because the Air Force has reached desired levels of mission capability, substantial savings are available if requirements are based on operational needs; (6) reprogramming the aircraft availability model at a 66-percent, rather than the 85-percent rate could reduce fiscal year 1991 safety-level requirements by about $590 million; and (7) the Air Force needs to ensure that unneeded procurements to fill requirements under the prior model are cancelled.

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.

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