GAO report: Spare-parts shortages
taking toll on readiness, retention
By Jon R. Anderson,
Stars and Stripes
A dwindling supply of spare parts is to blame for nosediving readiness rates among at
least two fleets of Navy aircraft, according to a recently-released report by the General
Accounting Office.
The GAO, the investigating arm of Congress, also noted in its 49-page report released
this month that mismanagement of inventories and other supply problems contribute to the
flood of frustrated sailors leaving the Navy for jobs elsewhere.
Using the EA-6B Prowler electronic jamming aircraft and the F-14 Hornet fighter-attack
jet as case studies, the GAO concluded "shortages of spare parts … not only have
affected readiness but also have created inefficiencies in maintenance processes and
procedures and have adversely affected the retention of military personnel."
The Navy, however, is not alone in these issues. Recent GAO probes into Army and Air
Force spare parts inventories revealed similar problems.
Looking at the Prowler, investigators noted the Navy met its annual goal of keeping at
least 73 percent of aircraft fully mission capable only three times during an 8-year
period.
The Tomcat fared even worse. During the same period, for example, the newest of the
Tomcat varieties, the F-14 "D-model" met the Navy’s 71-percent fully
mission capable goal only once.
Indeed, during the last 11 years, "the Navy has never achieved its overall goal to
have 73 percent of its aircraft capable of performing at least one of its assigned
missions," the report reads.
While other factors contribute to this, the lack of spare parts has grown into a
significant problem, concluded the report.
That’s despite millions of extra defense dollars earmarked to correct parts
shortfalls in recent years.
The Navy increased money for aircraft parts by $631 million between 1999 and 2000.
That’s on top of $116 million the Pentagon was given in extra funding in 1999 to
eliminate spare part backlogs.
Reasons for spare parts shortages varied, including greater demands than anticipated
and contractor delivery delays.
Regardless of the reason, the result is the same. Sailors spend more time in the hangar
bays doing what they can to keep aircraft in the air.
Cannibalization, the report reads, has become a growing stopgap, as mechanics strip
parts from good aircraft to fix others.
Dubbed "hangar queens" by the wrench turners, cannibalizing an aircraft more
than doubles the work load for mechanics who not only have to fix the broken aircraft but
also fix the stripped aircraft when parts eventually do arrive.
In one example, the report described one critical EA-6B part that was "removed
from or reinstalled on four different aircraft, for a total of 16 times in six days."
The Navy reported spending about 441,000 maintenance hours on cannibalizations, or more
than 18,000 around-the-clock days of work that would never have been needed had the parts
been on hand.
According to a recent Naval Inspector General survey, 79 percent of sailors questioned
said cannibalizations had increased, and they did not have enough parts to meet training
and real-world mission needs.
Meanwhile, the parts situation doesn’t appear to be getting any better.
In another report, released Aug. 16, GAO also criticized the Navy for not doing enough
to properly manage the parts it does have.
In that report, investigators found the Navy often failed to find out why some parts
had defects, why some parts failed earlier than expected and added that some reports
failed to identify who was responsible for defects.
"To a large extent, the program’s ineffectiveness can be attributed to lack
of management, limited training and incentives to report deficiencies, and competing
priorities for the staff resources needed to carry out the program," the report
reads.
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