Should Defense overhead reduction plans consider maintenance depots?

• Author: Steffes, Peter M.
• Position: VIEWPOINT

As the Defense Department studies ways to squeeze more efficiency from the military's overhead accounts, experts have suggested the maintenance and repair depots could be an obvious target-Observers agree that current depot-level maintenance and repair policies need a major overhaul. However, current legislation and congressional protections will be a major impediment to any changes in the status quo.

One of the more contentious issues between the Defense Department and Congress each year concerns the current and long-term operation of maintenance and repair depots. With a few exceptions, the basic issues have not changed in 15 years. Congress has consistently declared its position on the need to retain an "organic" source of maintenance and repair. Section 2464 of Title 10, US. Code states: "It is essential for the national defense that the Department of Defense maintain a core logistics capability that is government-owned and government-operated to ensure a ready and controlled source of technical competence and resources necessary to ensure effective and timely response to a mobilization, national defense contingency situations, and other emergency requirements."

The Defense Department has argued that it must have the flexibility to manage its repair and maintenance requirements efficiently. The disagreements with Congress over the years have been centered on just how these facilities should be managed.

To better understand this issue, it may be useful to review the history. From World War II to the Korean War, military depot maintenance capabilities expanded dramatically. At the height of the Cold War, industrial capacity had surged to a three-shift, 24-hour-a-day operation. Although never required to surge, the Pentagon paid for this excess capacity as a justifiable cost of preparedness. With the end of the Cold War, the need to retain this excess capacity and its inherent costs disappeared. The U.S. defense industry found itself with a significant unused plant capacity.

As the downsizing began, Congress began to be concerned that depot capacity reductions would go too far. This was not a collective concern, but rather, a concern of individual members who strongly believed that the most important national defense maintenance and repair depot was in their districts, a position that the voters in each district expected. The members who were most concerned with this issue formed what is known today as the Congressional Depot Caucus.

Past...