Defense Acquisitions: Navy Needs Plan to Address Rising Prices in Aviation Parts

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since fiscal year 1999, the Navy's budget for repairing spare parts to support its aviation weapons systems has increased by about 50 percent, from $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion. Some military commands have asserted that the escalating cost of these parts has adversely impacted the funds available for the readiness of military forces. Overall, the prices for Navy repairable spare parts continue to climb for the three aircraft and their engines that GAO focused on in its November 2000 report. GAO's assessment of selected parts being repaired showed that while nearly 45 percent of the parts decreased in price, about 55 percent increased an average of 91.5 percent between fiscal year 1999 and 2002. The price increases were primarily due to the dramatically higher costs of the materials needed to repair spare parts, although other factors, such as overhead fees and labor rates, contributed. However, GAO could not determine the underlying causes for the rising material costs because the Navy's database lacked key information on each repair. The Navy's progress in developing an overall plan to identify and address the reasons for higher spare parts prices has been limited. It has not yet identified and implemented ways to reduce and stabilize prices. Further, the Navy has undertaken several initiatives, but most of these efforts focused on improving the reliability or the maintenance processes for repairing spare parts rather than on identifying why prices continue to rise. One initiative, the establishment of an automated serial number tracking system for spare parts, however, has potential for providing the specific information needed to determine why the spare parts prices are increasing and develop a strategy for stabilizing them. In addition, the Navy may learn from the Defense Logistics Agency's efforts to address causes for price increases--thereby allowing the Navy to better apply its resources supporting the readiness of the forces.