The Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) issued a new audit report late last week of potential interest to the life cycle logistics functional area entitled “Audit of DoD Maintenance of Space Launch Equipment and Facilities (DODIG-2022-048)”.

• “…range items that did not have any spare parts for mission-critical range item components”
• ”…lacked spare parts for these… items because the spares were obsolete…”
• “…at an increased risk that aging range items with obsolete components could limit future launch capacity…”
• “….increased operational tempo, combined with a lack of spare parts for mission critical…components, increases the possibility that a non‑mission capable range item will cause a launch hold or scrub….”
• “…launch delays could occur (if the)… items remain in a non-mission capable status for an extended period….”

In this instance the IG “…determined that the Space Force actions to mitigate these spare parts shortages were appropriate, and we are not making recommendations to the Space Force regarding this area.”

So what do you think? What might this mean for my own program? Encourage you to think about lessons, applicability and questions for the broader workforce – including those from other organizations or programs – not the least of which is: what can we as DoD life cycle logistics professionals learn from this report? Do issues like lack of spare parts…aging items…obsolete components…not-mission capable status…sound familiar? How many of us are dealing with similar issues, and if so, how proactively are we addressing the issues highlighted in this report on our own programs?