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Southwest Research Institute agreement with Air Force Sustainment Center reduces costs, increases efficiency

For immediate release

San Antonio — July 9, 2015 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) recently signed an agreement to facilitate future weapons systems sustainment activities between the Air Force and SwRI that is expected to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The Enterprise Partnering Agreement is expected to improve efficiency by reducing the time and costs associated with negotiations for work at the Air Logistics Complexes at Warner Robins, Ga. (Robins AFB), Oklahoma City (Tinker AFB), and Ogden, Utah (Hill AFB). The agreement applies to all work between the Air Force Sustainment Center and SwRI, and allows projects to be created and managed more efficiently.

“This enterprise agreement is a good example of the strong relationship Southwest Research Institute has with the Air Force,” said SwRI Executive Vice President Walter Downing. “The improved and streamlined process will enable us to be more effective in supporting the Air Force mission, and ultimately, assist the warfighter. It also opens up additional opportunities for us to support the military depots to accomplish new workloads.”

Previously, each of the three Air Force depots signed individual contracts for specific projects. Negotiations often could take months to complete. The new process will allow SwRI to provide the engineering skills necessary to fulfill a logistics support contract much more quickly.

“With the nature of today’s threats to national security and the challenges of sustaining military readiness during this period of budgetary decline, PPPs will continue to be a viable means for workload sustainment in the future,” said Shannon Wagner, AFSC team lead for Public Private Partnering. “The AFSC will continue to fine-tune and make improvements to the process in a manner in which cost-savings and war-winning capabilities will not be diminished.”

SwRI has provided technical engineering support to the Air Force for several decades, including support for the A-10 Thunderbolt II and the T-38 Talon programs at Hill AFB. SwRI also has supported sustainment for aircraft subsystems, including propulsion, avionics, electrical, mechanical, electro-mechanical, and hydraulic at Tinker AFB. Staff expertise has also helped solve problems associated with information and electronics systems at Robins AFB.

“With enterprise partnering we can assure we have the right balance of capabilities across the industrial complex while delivering cost effective readiness back to the warfighter,” added Steve Alsup, AFSC director of Logistics.

For more information, contact Deb Schmid, +1 210 522 2254, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.