Coast Guard aviation logistics system could drive more savings, IG says

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general recommended Customs and Border Protection officials drop a planned acquisition of a new aviation logistics management IT system and instead use the Coast Guard’s management system, reports FCW, a sister publication of Defense Systems.

The department would save money by using the existing system, the IG wrote in a report, which was released Aug. 8, the story said.

CBP’s Office of Air and Marine has 270 aircraft of 26 different types and needs a better way to track them. The office keeps details on airplane maintenance and inventories in the Computerized Aircraft Reporting and Material Control, a system built in 1979 with a now-outdated programming language, the story said. Officials estimate they will pay more than $21 million to maintain CARMAC for the next five years, while replacing it with a new system would cost an estimated $7 million to buy and then operate over the next five years.