Military Logistics: JSF's ALIS goes live

1 June 2007

By Gregor Ferguson

Will a Joint Strike Fighter Regional Support Centre be established in Australia? We're months away from knowing whether a robust business case exists; but the potential exists.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program passed a key milestone in April when the F-35 Autonomous Logistics Information System (ALIS) went live at Lockheed Martin's Ft Worth factory.

The ALIS is the IT infrastructure which underpins the JSF Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment (ALGS) system, the construct which will see Lockheed Martin and the major JSF Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) take responsibility for in-service support of the global F-35 Lightning II fleet.

The ALIS will provide an information infrastructure that monitors, records and analyses the behaviour and health of each F-35 aircraft, helping create a database of logistics and operational information for every F-35 operator globally.

Developed in conjunction with Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support, the ALIS will start by capturing real time flight test data from the 14 F-35A, B and C Lightning II test aircraft which will be built under the current JSF Systems Design and Demonstration (SDD) phase.

"No such system has ever been activated so early in a military aircraft program, and with up to 4,500 F-35s to support in the coming years, the magnitude of its importance is clear," said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager.

"Historically, operation and support have accounted for about two-thirds of a fighter's lifecycle costs. The F-35 aims to reduce those expenses significantly, starting with an extremely reliable aircraft and our sophisticated data management system, ALIS," said Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and general manager of F-35 Program Integration.

"Each F-35 will constantly monitor its own systems and automatically relay information to ALIS. In turn, ALIS will provide an information infrastructure that captures, analyzes, identifies and communicates F-35 characteristics and data, providing information and decision support for every Lightning II user worldwide, on land or at sea," said Kimberly Gavaletz, Lockheed Martin vice president for F-35 Autonomic Logistics and Global Sustainment.

The first F-35A, test article AA-1, is undergoing flight testing at Ft Worth and by May 2007 had completed 17 flights; a further 11 F-35 test aircraft in all three configurations are currently in production. Plus two separate, interchangeable engines are under development for the F-35 family: the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136.

"As one of nine international Partners in the JSF Program, Australia is keenly monitoring ALIS' implementation. A sophisticated data management system, added to JSF's inherent reliability, will be key to the cost effective operation and support of the future JSF fleet," said Air Vice Marshal John Harvey, Program Manager of Australia's New Air Combat Capability (NACC) project.

By the time the Federal cabinet considers its 2nd Pass decision for the NACC in 2008, the JSF and its systems will have been subject to more detailed technical analysis than any other defence project in Australia's history, the DMO said.

The ALGS will challenge traditional in-service support models for tactical fighters, both in a 'hands-on' engineering sense and in a contractual sense.

Self-reliant support of the F-35 in Australia is a fundamental requirement for the RAAF, but the new technologies embedded in the JSF, including (but not limited to) stealth, and the expected improvement in system and component reliability means the JSF support model will almost certainly be very different from that of previous aircraft.

Creating and implementing that model will demand resolution of some very complex business, operational and alliance issues.

While Lockheed Martin will be ultimately responsible for in-service support, there will be separate arrangements in-country for each operator; and the ALGS could include Regional Support Centres (RSC) in strategic spots around the world.

The JSF project office in the USA is still defining the global baseline of sustainment services that will flow to all partners. BAE Systems Australia heads an Australian JSF Industry Advisory Coalition (JIAC) which has been seeking to establish one of these RSCs in Australia to support Australian F-35s, other F-35s operated by future customers such as Singapore, and visiting US F-35s.

The commonalities between the various F-35 models are such that an Australian RSC should be able to provide a high level of support for engines, avionics and vehicle systems for all three variants; however, some specialist aspects, such as the STOVL propulsion system of the F-35B may require dedicated facilities that may not be economical to establish in Australia.

In parallel, the NACC Integrated Project Team (comprising Defence and the Department of Industry) has been working with Lockheed Martin and its industry partners to develop an improved Industry Participation Plan that identifies opportunities and can help enable better long-term outcomes for Australian industry in the JSF program.

To support this work the JIAC and the NACC IPT are undertaking a study, due for completion at the end of 2007, to specify the in-country support capabilities needed to satisfy Australia's strategic requirements, and the timeline for establishing key parts of it. This will form the basis of a further JIAC study to examine whether a business case can be made for establishing a competitive RSC.

While sovereign self-reliance remains a key issue for the RAAF, the DMO has warned there is still a careful balance to be struck between achieving a specific level of self-reliance, on the one hand, and maximising affordability on the other. Given that affordability is one of the corner stones of the JSF program, Defence may not be too keen on anything that could compromise this.