The Honorable Leon Panetta
Secretary of Defense
Room 3E880
1000 Defense, Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Dear Secretary E. Panetta:
As Members of the House Military Depot and Industrial Facilities Caucus we are writing
to express our ongoing strong support for our nation’s depots and arsenals and the vital
role these facilities play in meeting the national security needs of the United States.
During the Department of Defense’s fundamental review of America’s military missions,
capabilities and roles, we urge you to pursue a strategy that preserves our organic
depot structure and enforces statutory provisions that assure the viability of an organic
logistics capability necessary to ensure military readiness. We reiterate the long-held
view of Congress that it is essential to the national security of the United States that the
Department of Defense maintain an organic capability within the Department, including
skilled personnel, technical competencies, equipment, and facilities, to perform depot-
level maintenance and repair of military equipment in order to ensure that the Armed
Forces of the United States are able to meet training, operational, mobilization, and
emergency requirements without impediment. The organic capability to perform depot-
level maintenance and repair of military equipment must satisfy known and anticipated
core maintenance and repair scenarios across the full range of peacetime and wartime
scenarios. We view core workload as synonymous with organic workload. Core
workload should support Joint Chief of Staff mobilization, contingency and emergency
scenarios under the National Military Strategy and should be fully funded and
accomplished by government employees in facilities owned and operated by the United
States. Strategic planning and budgeting for depot maintenance must be in compliance
with key provisions in Title 10, including Sections 2460, 2464, 2466, 2469, 2472, 2474
and 2476.
Indeed an analysis of historical data reveals that organic depot level maintenance may
provide the best value to the American taxpayer in terms of cost, quality and efficiency.
To preserve our military readiness, the Department should sustain the organic capability
and capacity to maintain and repair equipment, including new weapons systems within
four years of IOC, associated with combat, combat support, combat service support,
and combat readiness training. To ensure the efficient use of organic maintenance and
repair capacity, as well as best value to the taxpayer, we believe the Department of
Defense must effectively utilize its logistics facilities at optimal capacity rates. Not only
does this strategy reduce operations, maintenance and repair costs, it returns taxpayer
dollars to the community as economic multipliers for industrial jobs are almost double
those for almost any other sector, creating on average three jobs for every one –
certainly a priority in this economic climate. Further, the Department must sustain a
highly mission-capable, mission-ready maintenance workforce; therefore, depot
personnel must be managed to funding levels and not by artificial civilian end-strength
constraints.
We believe it is important to recall that our organic depots and industrial facilities are
essential to ensuring the success of the military warfighting mission. The Department
must protect those functions necessary to ensure readiness and defend the United
States and our allies during periods of armed conflict. These government-owned,
government-operated, facilities, employing government personnel, meet defense
requirements effectively and efficiently; are highly flexible and responsive to changing
military requirements and priorities; produce the highest quality work on critical systems;
meet essential wartime surge demands; promote competition; and sustain critically
needed institutional expertise.
In closing, as you review the military services strategy and budget proposals we
recommend that you approve those that maintain and fully fund the optimum organic
depot level capability required to ensure readiness in peacetime, sustainment in
wartime and reset after conflict or contingency.
Sincerely,