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

The Air Force plans to pay about $80,000, without competing bids, to replace the controls on the four booths where F-22s are painted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which an Air Force document says keep shutting down.

A single-source justification, a form explaining why only one company can do the work, from the 673d Contracting Squadron says the paint bays in Building 9696 "are consistently going down" because their logic programs, the controls' software, are out of date. Crews can't update those programs because the control panels are no longer supported by the manufacturer. The booths run 24/7. 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.

The fix 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 to WHESCO Group Inc. WHESCO designed and engineered the original panels and software for this facility. The company told the Air Force that no authorized or licensed vendor exists to service the equipment or its programming.

One section of the form asks for steps to avoid future single-source awards. It lists none. It says only WHESCO holds rights to the system, which leaves options "limited to a single source justification."

Contracting Officer William Underhill signed the determination. Its typed date reads Aug. 24, 2025, but his digital signature is dated Sept. 2, 2026. He cited a federal rule for small, simplified purchases. "The circumstances of this contract action deem only a single source is reasonably available," Underhill wrote.

The document doesn't say how often the booths have gone down or how long each shutdown lasted.

A Sept. 3 notice of intent described it as a fixed-price, single-source purchase under the federal rules for buying commercial products and services. It set responses due Sept. 18, 2026, and said the government retained discretion to proceed competitively 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.