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C-17 Aircraft: RM&A Evaluation Less Demanding Than Initially Planned

NSIAD-96-126 Published: Jul 26, 1996. Publicly Released: Jul 26, 1996.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's reliability, maintainability, and availability (RM&A) evaluation of the C-17 aircraft, focusing on: (1) RM&A planning, preparation, execution, and results; and (2) whether the evaluation demonstrated the aircraft's wartime surge rate.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Air Force to initiate action to recover the $750,000 in incentive fee overpayment from the contractor.
Closed – Not Implemented
In DOD's response to the final report, it continued to maintain that, even though the C-17 could not perform the formation personnel airdrop and aeromedical missions at the time of the RMA test, the aircraft was considered to be fully mission capable because all of the equipment specified in the minimum equipment list was installed on the aircraft and was operative.

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Topics

National Defense
Air Force procurementEvacuationContract termsContractor paymentsCost plus award fee contractsDefense capabilitiesMilitary aircraftMilitary airlift operationsOperational testingOverpaymentsTesting