Maintenance

Maintenance is an important aspect of military logistics and includes those activities needed to keep weapons, vehicles, and other materiel in an operable condition; to restore them to a serviceable condition when necessary; or to improve their usefulness through modifications. Such maintenance activities include inspection, testing, classification as to serviceability, adjustment, servicing, recovery, evacuation, repair, overhaul, and modification. Salvage and disposal are related functions.

Modern military equipment is complex and expensive and must be designed with reliability, durability, and ease of maintenance in mind. Thus, maintenance requirements, the potential usage of repair parts, and the tools and equipment needed to effect repairs are determined during the equipment development process, and operational capabilities must sometimes be sacrificed for greater reliability or ease of maintenance. Life cycle maintenance costs are also an important consideration inasmuch as the lifetime maintenance costs usually exceed an item's initial acquisition cost.

Traditionally, maintenance support has been divided into five levels, or echelons. User (first echelon) maintenance includes inspection, cleaning, tightening, lubrication, and minor adjustments performed by the equipment operator. Organizational (second echelon) maintenance is performed by unit maintenance personnel and involves recovery, evacuation, inspection, troubleshooting, and some replacement of parts and assemblies. Direct support (third echelon) maintenance is carried out by specialized maintenance units in fixed or semimobile maintenance facilities—or by mobile teams—and involves recovery, evacuation, inspection, replacement of major parts and assemblies, and the repair of some assemblies. Items repaired at the direct support level are normally returned to the using unit. General support (fourth echelon) maintenance involves the systematic repair and rebuilding of equipment and is generally performed by highly specialized maintenance units in fixed general support technical centers, each of which specializes in a particular type of equipment (e.g., combat vehicles or missiles). Items repaired or rebuilt at the general support level are returned to general stocks rather than to the using unit. Depot (fifth echelon) maintenance is also carried out by highly specialized maintenance personnel in fixed facilities; it involves the complete rebuilding of entire items and the renovation of major assemblies (such as motors or transmissions) for return to general stocks.

In recent years, the armed services have streamlined the maintenance process and now recognize only three echelons: user/direct support, intermediate/general support, and wholesale. In practice, the type and amount of work to be accomplished at each level is determined by the missions of the units involved, the probable operational situation, and the most cost‐effective use of available maintenance resources. The thrust of modern maintenance doctrine is to perform maintenance functions as far forward on the battlefield as possible by employing mobile repair teams, rapid battlefield recovery, and cannibalization (the reuse of serviceable parts taken from an otherwise unrepairable item). In general, it is easier and quicker to maintain a piece of equipment in a fully equipped fixed maintenance shop rather than in the field, but by maintaining equipment as far forward as possible, evacuation and repair time is minimized. Thus, the time an item is available to perform its combat function is increased.

Although some common maintenance support is provided by the General Services Administration and the Defense Logistics Agency, each of the armed services has its own system to provide every level of maintenance support. Army wholesale maintenance activities are overseen by the U.S. Army Materiel Command, which controls seven commodity‐oriented subordinate commands, each of which specializes in a particular type of materiel (e.g., wheeled vehicles or communications‐electronics equipment). Most army units, including maintenance units themselves, are organized with organic maintenance personnel and equipment. Thus, an infantry company normally has an organic maintenance section and an infantry division has an organic direct support maintenance battalion. Intermediate/general support maintenance activities are usually controlled by combat service support commands (e.g., a corps support command or a theater army area command).

The U.S. Marine Corps operates two distinct maintenance systems of its own, although the navy provides aviation and medical supply and maintenance support. Marine Corps base maintenance activities provide all levels of support for commercial‐type equipment or contract out what is beyond their capability. Fleet Marine Force units are supported by a system similar to that of army field forces, with organic maintenance units backed by specialized direct and general support maintenance units. Wholesale maintenance activities are carried out at Marine Corps logistics bases in Georgia and California.

Responsibility for navy maintenance activities is assigned to the Navy Systems Command, which oversees a number of specialized commodity‐oriented commands (e.g., the Naval Air Systems Command for naval aviation repair and the Naval Sea Systems Command for shipyards and ship repair facilities). User/direct support–level maintenance is performed by the using ship or air squadron. Intermediate/general support–level maintenance is performed in local repair facilities, which include combat logistics force ships and overseas bases. Wholesale‐level maintenance is performed in navy or commercial facilities in the continental United States.

Air force maintenance activities are the responsibility of the Air Force Logistics Command, which monitors the operation of five Air Logistics Centers. These centers, located in Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and California, are centralized wholesale repair facilities. Retail aircraft maintenance is performed at air base level. For nontactical (transport and utility) aircraft, a centralized concept is employed, and the work is normally performed in fixed base maintenance facilities by air force maintenance squadrons. Tactical aircraft are also maintained by air force maintenance squadrons, using a more decentralized concept designed to produce the maximum number of combat sorties.

Effective and cost‐efficient maintenance systems are essential to the success of military forces on land, at sea, and in the air. The complexity of modern weapons systems and the large number of such systems deployed in all types of climatic and terrain require extraordinarily good design and effective maintenance procedures and personnel if they are to perform their intended functions. The ability to ensure that weapons, vehicles, and other equipment are available and function properly gives a military force a decided advantage over an opponent who does not have that ability.
[See also Weaponry.]

Bibliography

Headquarters, Department of the Army , The Department of the Army, 1977.
Headquarters, Department of the Army , Field Manual 54‐10: Logistics—An Overview of the Total System, 1977.
United States Army War College, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations , Materiel Logistics—Service Logistics: Concepts, Organization, and Planning, 1991.

Charles R. Shrader