Maintenance Support Strategies

Air Force Journal of Logistics, Spring, 2001 by Peter J. Dye

Geostrategic, economic, and technological changes will make support of air operations, both at home and oversaes, increasingly dependent on the flexibility and responsiveness of the military logistic organization. This requires the creation of a highly integrated and agile support chain with global reach.

Military aviation maintenance support strategies are undergoing significant transformation in the aftermath of the Cold War. Organizational changes designed to reduce the cost and development time scales for new weapon systems and enhance the support of deployed, joint operations are set to radically alter military logistics. The main focus is on reducing logistic support costs while improving operational output. This requires the creation of a highly responsive and agile support chain with global reach. A key enabler in this process is the development of partnering arrangements between government and industry. Existing military aviation strategies have been shaped by a number of environmental factors, of an operational or budgetary nature, not shared with the commercial maintenance repair and overhaul sector. There is, nevertheless, scope for cost reduction through the employment of a variety of business improvement between government and industry.

Existing military aviation strategies have been snaped by a number of environmental factors, of an operational or budgetary nature, not shared with the commercial maintenance repair and tools and techniques, including process acceleration and improved materiel and production planning. However, the significant improvements required in the overall cost of ownership can only be delivered if the entire support chain is managed as a coherent entity and optimized end to end.

To date, strategies to shape the support chain have centred largely on outsourcing and rationalisation, relying on competition to deliver the best value for money. Partnering offers the prospect that the varied stakeholders can work effectively together to reduce logistic output costs and improve operational availability. While it is likely that the military logistic organization will continue to embrace depot level activities, they may well be on a smaller scale than at present and possibly managed under joint arrangements that partner the front-line, fleet managers, industry and in-house repair agencies. Whatever the outcome, the military customer will properly continue to be responsible for determining the required outputs, setting of priorities, and overall integration of the support chain.

The fundamental building block in achieving an effective partnering environment will be the creation of trust between the individual stakeholders. This requires a joint management approach, underpinned by spares-inclusive, long-term contracts with clear gain-share opportunities for all those involved. Success will be measured by a reduction in inventories, faster turn round of aircraft and high-value rotables, more rapid embodiment of modifications, quicker introduction of new technologies, a smaller expeditionary footprint, and greater operational output.

Maintaining military aircraft has always been a challenging and dynamic business, but today it is in the throes of radical change as air forces shape their logistic systems to post Cold War realities. Support strategies have had to be developed that address very different budgetary, technological, and operational requirements. This article examines these issues from a British perspective and draws heavily on the experience of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), formed in April 1999, to manage the aviation maintenance and repair facilities of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy in support of the United Kingdom's (UK) Armed Forces.

Background

A number of recent defence initiatives have had a direct impact on the UK's military aviation maintenance support strategies. Many of the resulting organizational and process changes have yet to be fully realized but, together with the lessons identified in the Gulf War and more recently in the Balkans, are likely to transform the way in which airpower and military capability, in general, are delivered and weapons systems supported both at home and in the field.

Strategic Defence Review

The UK's Strategic Defence Review (SDR), completed in 1998, has been central to shaping future logistic support arrangements for the RAF. [1] The two elements bearing most directly on the existing logistic organization are the Smart Procurement Initiative (SPI)--which seeks to ensure future equipment procurement is faster, cheaper,--and better and the formation of the Defence Logistics Organization (DLO).

SPI requires a much closer working relationship with industry in the procurement of new weapons systems with an emphasis on a through-life approach. The intention is to provide greater scope for tradeoffs between military effectiveness, time. and the whole-life cost of the equipment. Partnering between government and industry is a key enabler, together with improved commercial practices and the creation of an integrated team responsible for project management. The intent is to deliver greater operational capability with improved in-service support and lower through-life costs. More than 130 integrated project teams (IPT) have been formed, bringing together different functions at appropriate points in a project including requirements, procurement, contracts, finance, and logistic staffs within the Ministry of Defense (MoD) with representatives from industry.