Army’s unneeded spare parts worth billions of dollars

[unhappycamper]

Spc. Brandon Young, a helicopter mechanic with Company D, 3rd Battalion, 4th Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, prepares to take a blade off a Black Hawk helicopter at Camp Taji, on Aug. 14, 2008. A recent Goverment Accountability Office report found that the Army had on average $3.6 billion in spare parts that exceeded the service’s current requirements in each fiscal year from 2004 to 2007.


Army’s unneeded spare parts worth billions of dollars
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, January 16, 2009

The Army’s inventory of spare parts for aircraft, vehicles and tanks swelled from $2.7 billion worth in fiscal 2004 to $4.1 billion in fiscal 2007, mostly because the way the service projected its need for such items was flawed, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.

The GAO, after scrutinizing four years’ worth of Army supply inventory data, found that the Army had on average $3.6 billion in spare parts that exceeded the service’s current requirements in each fiscal year from 2004 to 2007.

The Army contested the report’s characterization of the parts as being in excess of its needs, saying the GAO generally classifies "current requirements" as what is required in the current year, and that the GAO figures include parts the Army intends to use.

"However, the Army plans for inventory to be either on hand or on order for the current plus the next two years thereby ensuring an adequate supply to meet the Combatant Commander’s needs," an Army spokesman wrote in an e-mail.

Based on Army forecasts, the service had enough of some parts to satisfy several years, or even decades, of anticipated needs, but was short by an average of $3.5 billion on other needed parts from 2004 to 2007.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60047