Privatization of the Aerospace Guidance and Metrology Center at Newark Air Force Base

摘要

The Aerospace Guidance and Metrology Center (AGMC) at Newark AFB was privatized in place as a result of the 1993 BRAC process. This was a first of a kind for the DoD repair depot system. The justification was too much excess depot capacity and by closing Newark the Air Force would rid itself of this excess capacity and obtain savings by privatizing the repair workload. This thesis concentrates on whether excess capacity at AGMC was as large as it was identified and if cost saving had materialized at the depot since the privatization. To determine how well the depot repairs were accomplished, performance metrics were examined before and after the privatization occurred. With the trend of privatization in the DoD depot system, many depot policy changes have occurred since the AGMC privatization. This research suggests the justification presented for closing Newark and privatizing AGMC was not accurate, the costs to operate the privatized depot is has cost the taxpayers $70 million more then if the depot would have remained organic, and how recent legislative changes are leading to a preference for private industry to perform all depot level maintenance.