I've been involved with the tank fleet for years, primarily in a tertiary support role. Parts have always been a challenge, but I haven't seen the issue quantified in some time. Since my RCEME colleagues often attribute problems to missing parts—when the real bottleneck might be a lack of facilities or personnel—I decided to take a deeper dive. Without getting into specifics, I reviewed work orders for the domestic fleet and analyzed some up-to-date briefs. Broadly speaking, the primary issue isn’t parts availability, but rather personnel shortages and limited time.
That’s not to say we aren’t missing parts, that sourcing them isn’t difficult, or that we always have enough on hand. However, the fleet’s current serviceability appears to be more closely tied to a lack of personnel and facilities. With the Leo facility in Nisku coming online to handle resource-intensive inspections, this could relieve pressure on overstretched 2nd (and 1st) line maintainers. In turn, this may free up time to address the minor corrective and preventative maintenance issues that are currently dragging down tank serviceability.
