Sustainment

Over the last ten years Air Force mission capable (MC) rates have steadily declined from 83.4 percent to 74.1 percent, a ten-percent decrease. Depot operations, both organic maintenance and supply, are directly attributable to this decline. Consequently, many senior leaders are emphasizing contract and private sector sustainment operations rather than organic and public sector sustainment operations. Accordingly, the emphasis of this paper is to illustrate why the Air Force needs an organic depot capability and how it can be improved. For every dollar the DOD spends on acquiring a weapon system, it will spend at least two more to sustain it over the weapons useful life. Moreover, the DOD has reduced procurement funding by 70 percent over this same period. Couple this funding reduction with a corresponding increase in aircraft usage and life extensions, and sustainment operations will only become more critical. The basic methodology of this research is to compare where the Air Force was ten years ago with the advent of acquisition reform and correspondingly apply those thoughts to improving sustainment operations.