https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated December 9, 2020
Defense Primer: Department of Defense Maintenance Depots
Title 10, United States Code (U.S.C.) §2464 states that it is
“essential for the national defense that the Department of
Defense maintain a core logistics capability that is
government-owned and government-operated [GOGO] ... 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.”
Accordingly, each military service owns and operates
industrial facilities that manufacture, maintain, repair, and
overhaul military weapons and equipment. These GOGO
facilities, together with certain government-owned,
contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities are collectively
referred to as the organic industrial base, or OIB.
Included in the OIB are several large-scale maintenance
facilities (otherwise named depots, shipyards, production
plants, logistics complexes, or readiness centers) owned by
each service that are dedicated to performing depot-level
maintenance and repair (collectively the “maintenance
depots”). In addition, the Air Force and Navy utilize several
“centers” that perform weapon systems support in the forms
of research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E),
acquisition, and sustainment activities including depot-level
maintenance and repair. This InFocus pertains to those
selected large-scale maintenance facilities that maintain,
repair, or overhaul end items (See GAO-17-82R).
What is Depot-Level Maintenance?
Title 10 U.S.C. §2460 defines depot-level maintenance and
repair (commonly “depot maintenance” or “D-Level”
maintenance) as “material maintenance or repair requiring
the overhaul, upgrading, or rebuilding of parts, assemblies,
or subassemblies, and the testing and reclamation of
equipment as necessary, regardless of the source of funds
for the maintenance or repair or the location at which
the maintenance or repair is performed [emphasis added
by CRS].” The definition includes “(1) all aspects of
software maintenance classified by the Department of
Defense as of July 1, 1995, as depot-level maintenance and
repair, and (2) interim contractor support or contractor
logistics support (or any similar contractor support), to the
extent that such support is for the performance of services
described in the preceding sentence.”
Section 2460 specifically excludes certain activities such as
“the procurement of major modifications or upgrades of
weapon systems that are designed to improve program
performance,” and the nuclear refueling or defueling of
aircraft carriers. Additionally, the procurement of parts for
safety modifications is not considered depot maintenance,
however the installation of those parts is.
How do the Maintenance Depots support
readiness?
DOD’s maintenance depots are GOGO facilities that are
capable of performing complete overhauls of military
weapon systems, as well as repairs to many individual
components within each weapon system. Many of the
maintenance depots also have the ability to send mobile
repair teams to operating locations to perform on-site
technical assistance or in-depth repairs. As the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) states in its 2019 report
(GAO-19-242), these depots “are crucial to maintaining
military readiness by ensuring that the services can
regularly repair critical weapon systems and return them to
the warfighter for their use in training and operations.” The
maintenance depots also serve as a repository for technical
data, testing equipment, and unique tooling and design
capabilities for many weapon systems.
Organization and Management
Each military service includes command structures with
responsibility for providing logistics and maintenance
support to the majority of its weapon systems and
equipment. Within each service, there are dedicated
maintenance depots whose primary responsibility is to
conduct depot-level maintenance (Figure 1). However,
depot-level maintenance can be performed at any location,
thus some facilities may not be identified as a maintenance
depot by DOD or other government agencies due to the
scale or majority of work performed at that location.
Figure 1. Selected DOD Maintenance Depot Sites
Source: GAO-17-82R.
Note: The identification of maintenance depot sites has changed
over time (e.g., see the 2008 DOD Maintenance Fact Book). No sites
were identified in Alaska, Hawaii, or the U.S. territories.
Army
Army Materiel Command (AMC), headquartered at
Redstone Arsenal, AL, develops and delivers materiel
support to maintain combat equipment. AMC operates five
maintenance depots, each of which is generally responsible
for specific systems.
