Depot Maintenance Statute - Title 10 USC 2460

Title 10 USC 2460 serves as the basis for a series of statutes that regulate various specific aspects of depot-level maintenance. These statutes are contained in the following section of the US Code:

• Title 10: Armed Forces
  • Subtitle A: General Military Law
    • Part IV: Service Supply and Procurement
      • Chapter 146: Contracting for Performance of Civilian Commercial or Industrial Type Functions

This series of depot-maintenance statutes includes:

• 10 USC 2460: Definition of depot-level maintenance and repair
• 10 USC 2464: Core logistics capabilities
• 10 USC 2466: Limitations on the performance of depot-level maintenance
• 10 USC 2469: Contracts to perform workloads previously performed by depot-Level activities of the Department of Defense: requirement of competition
• 10 USC 2470: Depot-level activities of the Department of Defense: authority to compete for maintenance and repair workload of other Federal agencies
• 10 USC 2472: Prohibition on management of depot-level employees by end strength
• 10 USC 2474: Centers of Industrial and Technical Excellence: designation; public-private partnerships
• 10 USC 2476: Minimum capital investment for certain depots

Links to all are provided in the Statutes and Codes section on the bottom of this article. 

Key aspects of the statute include the following:

• Depot-level maintenance and repair consists of material maintenance or repair requiring the overhaul, upgrading, or rebuilding of parts, assemblies, or subassemblies, and the testing and reclamation of equipment as necessary.
• Depot maintenance is not appropriation- or source-of-funds-specific. Depot maintenance can be and is funded by various appropriations, such as Procurement, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) and Research, Development, Test & Engineering (RDT&E). Under certain circumstances, depot maintenance may be funded by cash payments from non-governmental organizations.
• Depot maintenance is not site-specific. Depot maintenance is a capability, not a place. Thus, the performance of depot maintenance is not restricted to facilities commonly acknowledged to be depot-level maintenance activities, but rather can be performed at any location, including field locations, by personnel with the requisite skills, technical data, facilities and equipment needed to perform assigned depot-level tasks.
• Depot maintenance includes software maintenance (as classified as depot maintenance by DoD on July 1, 1995). This is important because some agencies have traditionally not considered software updates to qualify as depot-level maintenance. For example, while the Air Force has traditionally managed and performed software maintenance at its maintenance depots (i.e., Air Logistics Complexes), software maintenance for Navy and Army has traditionally been performed at activities not considered to be depot maintenance activities. Nonetheless, the statute makes it clear that software maintenance is to be considered as depot-level maintenance.
• ICS (depot maintenance performed by a contractor in the intervening period between production of the first item and establishment of organic depot maintenance capability) and CLS (depot maintenance performed by the contractor on a long-term basis) are to be considered as depot maintenance.
• Depot maintenance includes the installation of parts for safety modifications, but not the procurement of those parts.
• The statutory language specifically excludes the procurement of parts for major modifications or upgrades designed to improve system performance. It is silent on the applicability of installation of major modifications/upgrades. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) language accompanying the FY 12 NDAA (Report 112-173, p 81), however, seems to indicate that both the procurement and installation of major modifications/upgrades are excluded from the definition.
• Depot maintenance does not include nuclear refueling or defueling of an aircraft carrier and any concurrent complex overhaul.