Failing controls keep shutting down JBER's F-22 paint booths, Air Force says

The Air Force plans to replace the controls on the four booths where F-22s are painted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, after an Air Force document said the booths keep shutting down.

The paint bays in Building 9696 run around the clock, but their logic programs, the software that runs the controls, are out of date, according to a single-source justification from the 673d Contracting Squadron. Crews can't update the programs because the manufacturer no longer supports the control panels, the document says. Each time the controls go into alarm, the booths shut down and "all maintenance has to stop for environmental and personnel health concerns" until a workaround restarts them, the document says. It doesn't say how often the booths have gone down or how long each shutdown lasted.

The Air Force's plan is new control panels and software for all four booths, at an estimated $79,890 including options. The Air Force intends to award the work without competing bids to WHESCO Group Inc., which designed and engineered the original panels and software for the facility. The company told the Air Force that no other authorized or licensed vendor can service the equipment or its programming. Because WHESCO holds the rights to the system, the document says, the Air Force's options are limited to a single source.

Contracting Officer William Underhill signed the determination Sept. 2 under federal rules for small, simplified purchases.

A Sept. 3 notice gave other companies until Sept. 18 to respond and said the Air Force could still open the work to competition based on what came in. The available records don't show whether any other company responded, and federal spending records show no Air Force award to WHESCO yet.