A Repair Network Concept for Air Force Maintenance: Conclusions from Analysis of C-130, F-16, and KC-135 Fleets

For more than 15 years, the U.S. Air Force has been continually engaged in deployed operations in Southwest Asia and in other locations. Recent Office of the Secretary of Defense planning guidance directs the services to plan for high levels of engagement and deployed operations, although their nature, locations, durations, and intensity may be unknown. Recognizing that this new guidance might impose different demands on the logistics system, senior Air Force logistics leaders asked RAND Project AIR FORCE to undertake a logistics enterprise analysis. This analysis aims to identify and rethink the basic issues and premises on which the Air Force plans, organizes, and operates its logistics enterprise. This monograph synthesizes the results of the initial phases of the logistics enterprise study. It describes an analysis of repair network options to support three series of aircraft: C-130, KC-135, and F-16. It assesses the effect of consolidating certain scheduled maintenance tasks and off-equipment component repair at centralized repair facilities and finds that consolidated capabilities would be more effective and efficient than the current system, in which every wing has significant maintenance capabilities to accomplish these activities. The monograph also discusses an initial assessment of maintenance concepts that integrate wing-level and depot-level maintenance processes.