Consolidating Air Force Maintenance Occupational Specialties

In a climate of declining budgets, Air Mobility Command (AMC) is pursuing strategies to reduce aircraft operating and support costs without jeopardizing readiness. To assist AMC with its effort, RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) considered a number of options targeting unit-level costs. The project team reviewed commercial carrier aircraft maintenance approaches and had discussions with subject-matter experts familiar with Air Force aircraft maintenance practices and policies. Based on those interactions, PAF identified consolidation of aircraft maintenance occupational specialties as having the potential for reducing personnel requirements and costs. The impact of Air Force specialty (AFS) consolidation on active-duty KC-135 maintenance personnel at MacDill, McConnell, and Fairchild Air Force Bases was modeled to address various questions in this report