A team of technicians with the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., succeeded in determining (good news) what caused the F100 engine fan blade shop to lose nearly $16 million (bad news) over an 18-month period and also managed to devise a method to “significantly reduce costs” (good news) in the future, according to a Jan. 26 Tinker release. Team leader Michelle Waggoner, an industrial engineering technician, attributed much of the problem to supply management and parts integrity, which she said are “a critical area of our business.” She noted, “Simple mistakes in procedure can cost the government and ultimately the taxpayers millions of dollars.” According to Brian deFonteny, with the Black Belt Center Transformation Office, the fan blade shop’s previous method for ordering and receiving parts was “very confusing,” and because of that the “over and under ordering of required fan blades for each F100 engine was inevitable.” The F100 engine powers the Air Force’s F-15 fleet and most of its F-16s. (Tinker report by Brandice Armstrong)
Senior U.S. lawmakers expressed frustration that they are being cut out of some of the Trump administration’s most central decisions on military policy and spending. Their concerns, which are shared on both sides of the aisle, concern the budget reconciliation process as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash…