Life Cycle Support in Transition
Written by Henry Canaday
MLF 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 8 (September)
The 330th Aircraft Sustainment Group at Warner Robins Air Force Base supports about 600 U.S. Air Force C-130s and assists in support of roughly 640 C-130s operated by other governments. The Air Force approach has differed for the older C-130E and H models, compared with the J models now coming into the fleet.
Es and Hs have had isochronal inspections, coming into depot every 69 months. The new Js take advantage of digital instruments that monitor flight loads and will be handled under a program more like commercial aircraft maintenance with its A, B and C checks. The first C130-J is due at Warner Robins around 2012. “Instruments tell you whether the flight regime was hard or easy, and you can do selective inspections,” explained 330th Director Terrence K. May. “Older models without instruments had to be managed on a worst-case basis.”
But change is coming. The Air Force wants to implement high-velocity maintenance (HVM), the same basic plan to be used for Js, on Es and Hs. “Instead of spending 150 days every 69 months, we want to bring them in every 15 months, do work packages and inspect them for tasks they will need the next trip,” May explained. “We can then have parts, tools and repair packages ready.”
Warner Robins will pilot HVM on three older C-130s this fall, and hopes to prototype the new method by 2010 and begin a five-year transition to HVM in 2011. “It should be a significant improvement,” May predicted.
The Air Force owns the data on older Es and Hs, so it has had design and engineering authority, made modification decisions and put work out to bid by government or industry. The J is an updated H, with new engines, a glass cockpit and an advanced cargo system. Lockheed Martin owns the data and most analytic tools on Js, so the Air Force consults on J-specific items with the company, which does the work or farms it out to subcontactors. The Air Force will have its first true long-term public-private partnership (PPP) with Lockheed Martin on the Js, due to the company’s ownership of data rights.
All program depot maintenance on Air Force C-130s is done at Warner Robins or Hill Air Force bases. “This is core workload, a key element to comply with the 50-50 rule,” May said. Major unscheduled maintenance may be done by Lockheed Martin if the Air Force lacks capacity and capability. Lockheed Martin has usually subcontracted this work to vendors, but in six months the Air Force will begin dealing directly with these vendors. Upgrades are handled on a case-by-case basis, in light of Title 10’s 50-50 requirements. For example, Warner Robins plans to do 10 avionics modification programs (AMPs) per year to acquire experience.
Unlike Es and Hs, the Js are supported by two 10-year, performance-based long-term sustainment (LTS) contracts, one with Lockheed Martin to manage the supply chain for J-specific parts, the other with Rolls-Royce on AE2100 engines. The major metrics are for supply chain performance and stock levels, while Rolls also has time on wing. Both firms have performed well, according to May, who would like to have performance-based agreements on older C-130s as well, wherever suitable and consistent with the 50-50 rule. “Over time we will try to move metrics closer to aircraft availability,” May said. But contractors cannot be responsible for full availability, unless the government gives up discretion over modifications.
Lockheed Martin began delivering C-130Js to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1998, has now delivered 175 globally and has a backlog of 91. It can build 36 per year at its Marietta, Ga., factory. “It is a very exciting time to be working on the C-130,” said Lockheed Martin’s Don Villnow, who leads sustainment on C-130Js for U.S. government customers.
The LTS contract on the J for the Air Force began in 2006. “It has been very successful,” Villnow stressed. For J-specific parts— about 20 percent of total parts on the C-130—Lockheed Martin is paid under LTS partly by the mission-capable rate per aircraft as affected by Lockheed Martin part delivery, by the availability of parts in local stocks when needed and by wait time when parts are not available.
Lockheed Martin uses data from an Air Force system for tracking performance metrics, after concurrence on definitions and exclusions. Villnow said use of Air Force data builds trust between the parties, which agree on threshold metrics each year to drive for further improvement. “The bar keeps getting higher, and we keep meeting it.”
The J’s digital instrumentation supports fault isolation and prediction, allowing Lockheed Martin to have parts ready and track flight conditions for each aircraft, avoiding unnecessary inspections. The manufacturer has a performance-based subcontract with GE Aviation Systems’ Dowty division for propellers and is working to flow down the performance-based approach to other subcontractors.
Moving toward performance measured by aircraft availability is desirable. But Lockheed Martin is reluctant to impose too many administrative burdens for distinguishing between its J parts and common C-130 parts in availability calculations.
Lockheed Martin sustains C-130Js based on experience with all operators around the world. For the RAF, it partners with Marshall Aerospace and Rolls-Royce. Lockheed Martin recently signed a 20-year, throughlife sustainment agreement with the Australian government and is working with Canada for a long-term deal on 17 C-130Js that start delivery in May 2010. For all global customers worldwide, Lockheed Martin assembles block upgrade programs every couple of years to keep aircraft up to date with requirements and further improve performance.
BLUE-GREEN FOR STRYKER
Since spring of 2002, the Stryker armored combat vehicle has received one-stop support from General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS). That is changing, under a ‘bluegreen’ transition to more organic support by the Army, scheduled for completion in fiscal year 2012.
GDLS has had responsibility for maintenance and parts, battle damage assessment, combat damage and repair, deployment, support, resets, retrofit and testing. GDLS has not been paid by performance metrics. “It is more contractor logistics support [CLS] with performance measured,” explained Douglas Wilson-Hodge, GDLS deputy program manager for support. “The government has requirements we work diligently to comply with.” Fleetwide, Strykers must report operational readiness of at least 90 percent.
GDLS has provided one-stop support for 2,300 fielded Strykers. It provides heavy support at two national facilities and in the field with Stryker brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. Forty-five GDLS employees work with each Stryker brigade in the U.S. and 55 when the brigade is deployed. Lewis Fadale, senior representative at GDLS’s support program office, estimated his company has provided 85 percent of Stryker support, managing a supply chain of more than 185 suppliers. “Now we are transitioning from blue to green,” Fadale said. “We will take care of spare parts, services and national level support.”
GDLS has used its Data Management Information Systems (DMIS) to track job orders. “When a part is replaced DMIS gives us each part down to the part number and vehicle number,” Wilson-Hodge explains. “This gives us the ability to understand trends, what is happening, reasons for failures and to see part consumption.” After the blue-green transition, data will be tracked by an Army system.
Instead of going through GDLS, Army staff will have direct access to support data. “We do not know what information the Army will put into their system or what we can pull out,” Fadale said. He worries that the Army tracking system might be cumbersome and not as robust as DMIS.
Data quality and access are important for another reason. For life cycle optimization, GDLS has used the Contractor Logistics Improvement Program (CLIP) and fleet logistics management (FLM) to understand failures, reduce long-term cost and improve the Stryker’s capabilities. Data from DMIS, along with monthly meetings with the Army, allow the contactor to set priorities for reaching all these goals. “After 2012, there is a question whether we will be able to access this information and be able to mine the data,” said Wilson-Hodge.
However it is handled, continued support and improvement of Strykers presents formidable challenges. “Soldiers need to have options on the Stryker for operational equipment, so the main challenge is how to support it in deployment, given extra armor weight, new equipment and power requirements,” Wilson-Hodge said.
The Stryker will continue to evolve as new uses and requirements are found. “It will go through modernization; there will be more technology and equipment. We do not think the changes will slow down,” Wilson- Hodge said. He believes the basic Stryker platform could serve through the middle of the century.
GDLS’ Army counterparts generally see things similarly. “From day one the Stryker has been a very interesting program,” said Connie Tucker, deputy project manager on the Stryker Brigades Combat Team. “We would not have predicted in 2002 the Stryker would have accumulated 25 million in miles by now.” The project’s Logistics Director Jeff Magner estimated Stryker usage has been six to seven times the rate expected in peacetime operations. “The operating tempo has not been typical,” Tucker noted. “They are either deployed, on their way to deployment or resetting after deployment.”
GDLS has certainly met the 90 percent readiness requirement. “They have far exceeded that, closer to 97 percent,” Tucker said. This is readiness as specified in the GDLS platform contract, not necessarily the readiness of the entire system including weapons.
The transition from blue to green has two parts. Unscheduled maintenance done in the field has been done by GDLS at the seven Stryker brigades. “There was a conscious decision that this was not for the long term,” Magner explained. “So the brigades have been directed to plus up. This is taking hold now.” This part is to be completed by fiscal 2012.
The second part involves supply of parts. GDLS has provided all parts separately from the Army’s regular logistics system. The system has worked. “The parts have been there,” Magner said. But some users have been concerned about visibility of the supply chain. So supply of all Stryker parts will be moved into the Army’s standard requisitioning system and the Defense Logistics Agency, also by FY12 according to plan. GDLS will continue to supply the 65 percent of parts that are unique to the Stryker.
GDLS will also continue responsibility for national level maintenance. But depot maintenance must comply with Title 10 rules requiring 50 percent of Army national-level hours be at government depots and that minimum core hours be performed at government depots. This is being accomplished through a partnership between GDLS and the Army’s Anniston depot.
The Army has been very satisfied with GDLS’ support, and Tucker recognized there will be risks in the transition to Army responsibility for field maintenance. The blue-green decision was made in 2006, and brigades have been adding personnel to make it work. “We will not do anything rash that will cause it to fail,” Magner emphasized. “We have risk mitigation measures in place.” For example, every brigade will retain a GDLS field service representative after the transition.
The second part of the transition also presents challenges. “One of the strengths of GDLS is their data mining, which gives insights so we can address problems quickly and look at trends,” Tucker said. Now this data will be tracked through the Army’s logistic system. “We are concerned about that, too,” Tucker acknowledged. “We may have to find ways to augment that.”
Magner noted that the Army is moving to a new Logistics Monitoring Program (LPM) for tracking its requisition process. “We are just learning about this new system now.” The LPM is now planned for a launch in October 2010. ♦