ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. –
Defense Contract Management Agency recognized its Aircraft Integrated Maintenance Operations Command’s 20th anniversary today.
AIMO plans to add to their two-decade legacy of providing safe and effective aircraft operations to ensure the delivery of more than490 aircraft by fiscal year’s end.
“Twenty years is an incredible milestone for AIMO, and I am immensely proud of the AIMO team, whose vision, passion, technical acumen and professionalism have been the foundation of its success,” said Navy Capt. Gabriel Hohner, DCMA AIMO’s commander.
Over the last two decades, facilities under AIMO governance yielded 38,800 flight operations, resulting in the delivery of 6,900 aircraft to the warfighter. Contractors, DCMA aircrews, and temporary duty crews from receiving military units conducted these flights to ensure the high-value warfighting systems were ready and delivered.
AIMO became its own command in 2020 with six current contract management offices around the country: Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; Greenville, South Carolina; Oklahoma City; San Antonio, Texas; multiple sites in north Texas; and St. Augustine, Florida.
AIMO’s history began humbly. It was established Aug. 10, 2003, to replace the formerly known Southeast Aircraft Operations, or SEAO. At the time, the agency director determined the need for a product-aligned organization with a dedicated mission of aircraft overhaul, maintenance, modification and repair work, also known as OMMR.
“To better understand the impact of our mission, it’s important to reflect on our history that led us to where we are today,” said Paula Merritt, AIMO’s contracts director.
A Complex History
SEAO focused on the southeast U.S. because of the high volume of non-original equipment manufacturers at the time that conducted OMMR work in a low-cost but highly competitive labor market. The original offices were in St. Augustine, Florida, Greenville, South Carolina, and Birmingham and Ozark, Alabama.
This original OMMR workload was typically shorter duration contracts at small geographically disbursed facilities and focused on aging aircraft complexities, varying work scopes per induction, and heavy over-and-above efforts resulting in a pattern of increased risk for the government and highlighted the need for specialized experience in providing consistent oversight.
As the command started seeing significant successes, the agency’s director determined a broader based aircraft product organization was required and stood-up AIMO. Once established, AIMO added three more contract management offices to their scope: Kelly-San Antonio, Texas; Melbourne, Florida; and Bethpage, New York.
In December 2007, AIMO North Texas was established, and in May 2010, AIMO Bethpage was transferred to DCMA Long Island. In October 2011, AIMO Oklahoma City was established. AIMO Birmingham and, most recently this year, AIMO Melbourne were disestablished and consolidated with AIMO St. Augustine.
“Like a pilot adapts to changing flight conditions, AIMO has adapted, and will continue to do so, as the OMMR environment evolves,” said Tim McCorkle, AIMO’s deputy commander.
DCMA saw the success and continued need of their mission established AIMO as an operational unit in October 2020.
“AIMO employees know their ‘why,’ which is the execution of safe and effective aircraft operations at contractor facilities to deliver quality aircraft and critical support to the services on target and on budget, while also focusing on aircraft programs’ risk-reduction and improvement of industry-wide performance,” said Philip Porter, AIMO’s aircraft operations group director. “Our team of both civilian and military members bring their passion and technical acumen to AIMO and deliver acquisition lifecycle efforts within 15 states and a cognizance of 38 resident and 24 non-resident sites.”
The AIMO team takes pride in providing direct mission support of more than 89 programs and efforts.
“Our command values its relationships inside and outside of DCMA as sacred, with colleagues and customers as a critical part of the organization’s consistent ability to deliver value,” said Merritt. “Each individual here feels like they have contributed to that mission due to the constant challenges to address and issues to resolve on aircraft programs.”
According to Hohner, the command and agency leadership laud AIMO’s effective approach to proactive flight operations and believe it is worth replicating.
“As vision 2026 continues to take shape, it will be exciting to see how the organization continues to evolve while maintaining its focus on our customers and the critical aviation maintenance and production missions it supports,” he said.
Watch the short promo video.