The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has many types of weapons systems that must be continuously maintained, and many of those systems are aging. Many of the components required to maintain these weapon systems are single sourced, or are available from a limited number of sources, and are therefore often relatively expensive to procure. In recent years the DoD budget has been reduced making it more difficult to procure components on an as needed basis to meet the requirements of the warfighter. Consequently, every effort must be made to reduce the cost of sustainment of these weapon systems. This effort seeks to reduce the cost of weapons systems replacement components through increased competition and source approval. During Phase I, ES3 will perform the necessary Research & Development (R&D) to create a Technical Data Package (TDP) for an F-16 component, managed by DLA, that has been identified as limited source. ES3 will then perform the R&D necessary for creation of a Source Approval Request (SAR) to DLA and ultimately the Engineering Support Activity (ESA) for approval on that component.
