April 26, 2019 | International, Aerospace
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Only about half of the F-35s worldwide were ready to flyduring an eight-month period in 2018, with the wait for spare parts keeping jets on the ground nearly 30 percent of the time, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
Over the past several years, the Defense Department has sought to improve mission capable rates by making improvements to the way it and F-35 contractor Lockheed Martin order, stockpile and repair spare parts. However, GAO's findings imply that the situation may have gotten worse.
The GAO's report, released April 25, investigated how spare parts shortages impacted F-35 availability and mission capable rates in 2018, with most data gathered between a May and November sustainment contract period.
“In 2017, we reported that DOD was experiencing sustainment challenges that were reducing warfighter readiness, including delays of 6 years in standing up repair capabilities for F-35 parts at its depots and significant spare parts shortages that were preventing the F-35 fleet from flying about 20 percent of the time,” GAO said in the report.
“According to prime contractor data, from May through November 2018, F-35 aircraft across the fleet were unable to fly 29.7 percent of the time due to spare parts shortages,” it said. “Specifically, the F-35 supply chain does not have enough spare parts available to keep aircraft flying enough of the time necessary to meet warfighter requirements.”
That lack of improvement may make it more difficult for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps to hit an 80 percent mission capable rate by the end of fiscal year 2019, as mandated by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last fall.
The military services stopped providing mission capable rates for aircraft last year, citing operational sensitivities. However, the data put forth by the GAO indicates that progress stagnated in the lead up to Mattis' order.
From May to November 2018, mission capable rates — which measure how many planes possessed by a squadron can perform at least one of its missions — hovered around 50 percent for all versions of the F-35.
But when GAO assessed how many planes were fully mission capable — meaning that they were ready to fulfill all of their mission sets — all variants were far from meeting the 60 percent target. Only 2 percent of F-35C carrier takeoff and landing versions hit the fully mission capable mark, with the F-35Bs slightly better at 16 percent and the F-35A at 34 percent.
The GAO is skeptical that the services will be able to hit the 80 percent mission capable rate goal this year, and it is even more critical of the Defense Department's plans to fund spares in future years.
The department intends to buy “only enough parts to enable about 80 percent of its aircraft to be mission-capable based on the availability of parts.” However, that planning construct will likely only yield a 70 percent mission capable rate at best, the GAO said, because it only accounts for the aircraft on the flight line and not jets that are in the depot for longer term maintenance.
No silver bullet for parts shortage issues
Like all complicated problems, there is no single solution for the F-35 spare parts shortage, which is driven by a number of factors.
GAO indicated that the Defense Department still has “a limited capacity” to repair broken parts, creating a backlog of 4,300 parts still needing to be addressed. Between September and November, it took more than six months to fix parts that should have been repaired in a window of two to three months.
The F-35's much-maligned Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) was designed to be able to track parts and automate the process of generating and expediting work orders, however, GAO notes that the system still requires manual workarounds from users in order to accomplish tasks.
Supply and maintenance personnel cited challenges such as “missing or corrupted electronic spare parts data,” limited automation and problems caused by ALIS's subsystems not communicating with each other properly, it said.
As the F-35 is still a relatively new platform, it has taken time for the program to assess which parts have been failing more often than previously estimated — but that is an area where the Defense Department is making progress, the GAO stated.
“DOD has identified specific parts shortages that are causing the greatest aircraft capability degradation, and it is developing short-term and long-term mitigation strategies to increase the quantity and reliability of these parts,” the report said.
One such component is a coating used on the F-35's canopy to help it maintain its stealth characteristics, which has been found to peel off at an unexpected rate, creating a heightened demand for canopies.
“To address these challenges, the program is looking for additional manufacturing sources for the canopy and is considering design changes,” the GAO stated.
But — somewhat paradoxically — the F-35 has been flying for a long enough time that there is significant parts differences between the first jets that rolled off the production line to the most recently manufactured planes. The GAO found “at least 39 different part combinations across the fleet” on top of variations in software.
“According to the program office, DOD spent more than $15 billion to purchase F-35 aircraft from the earliest lots of production, specifically lots 2 through 5 ... but it faces challenges in providing enough spare parts for these aircraft,” the report stated.
One problem — the cannibalization of F-35 aircraft for parts — is partially user-inflicted.
“From May through November 2018, F-35 squadrons cannibalized (that is, took) parts from other aircraft at rates that were more than six times greater than the services' objective,” the GAO stated. “These high rates of cannibalization mask even greater parts shortages, because personnel at F-35 squadrons are pulling parts off of other aircraft that are already unable to fly instead of waiting for new parts to be delivered through the supply chain.”
During an interview this February, Lt. Col. Toby Walker, deputy commander of the 33rd Maintenance Group, told Defense News that F-35 maintainers at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., had stopped pulling parts off a cannibalized F-35 and had seen some improvements to mission capable rates as a result.
“We're not continually moving parts from one aircraft to another. We're relying on the program to provide our parts,” he said. “It was a very strategic plan to do that to increase aircraft availability by not sitting an aircraft down.”
In a statement, Lockheed Martin said that it had taken key steps to improve parts availability, such as transitioning some suppliers to performance based logistics contracts that incentivize companies to meet certain targets, as well as “master repair agreements” that will allow other suppliers to make longer term investments in their production capability.
“These actions are beginning to deliver results and we're forecasting additional improvement. Newer production aircraft are averaging greater than 60 percent mission capable rates, with some operational squadrons consistently at 70 percent,” the company said.
“From a cost perspective, Lockheed Martin has reduced its portion of cost per aircraft per year by 15 percent since 2015. Our goal is to further reduce costs to $25,000 cost per flight hour by 2025, which is comparable to legacy aircraft while providing a generational leap in capability.”
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January 28, 2021 | International, Naval
Posted on January 27, 2021 by Seapower Staff ARLINGTON, Va. — Leonardo DRS Inc. has received a contract from the U.S. Navy to supply critical system hardware and full life-cycle support for Aegis and Ship Self-Defense System Combat Management Systems, the company announced in a Jan. 27 release. The cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract was awarded in December 2020 and is worth up to $211.5 million. Under the contract Leonardo DRS will provide sustainment of Technical Insertion (TI)-16 Combat Systems Processing, Network, Storage and Display Hardware fielded across the surface ship fleet. Included in the contract is the sustainment, manufacture, assembly, and testing of TI-16 hardware, spares; engineering services, procurement, and installation of ordinance alteration kits and related products. Leonardo DRS is the prime contractor for the surface navy, producing consoles, displays and peripherals (CDP) and the Common Processing System (CPS) TI-16 for the Navy's surface combatants. “We are excited about this award and proud to provide full life-cycle combat system hardware support to ensure fleet readiness remains high,” said Tracy Howard, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics business. “Additionally, our extensive experience will bring increased capability to the Fleet as the Integrated Combat System is fielded over the next 5 years in support of these future U.S. Navy requirements,” he said. Work will be done at the Leonardo DRS Laurel Technologies facilities in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Chesapeake, Virginia. https://seapowermagazine.org/leonardo-drs-awarded-navy-contract-for-technical-insertion-of-surface-fleet-combat-management-systems/
January 14, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
NAVY Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Washington, is awarded an estimated $1,760,000,000 value single-award, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Microsoft Enterprise Services for the Department of Defense (DoD), Coast Guard, and intelligence community. Support includes Microsoft product engineering services for software developers and product teams to leverage a range of proprietary resources and source-code, and Microsoft premier support for tools, knowledge database, problem resolution assistance, and custom changes to Microsoft source-code when applicable. This contract is issued under the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) in accordance with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, Section 208.74. DoD ESI is an initiative to streamline the acquisition process and provide information technology products and services worldwide that are compliant with applicable DoD technical standards and represent the best value for the DoD. The work will be performed worldwide. The ordering period will be for five years with a completion date of Jan. 10, 2024. This contract will not obligate funds at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual task orders using primarily operations and maintenance funds (DoD). This sole-source procurement is issued using other than full and open competition in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 6.302-1 and 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) - only one responsible source. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-D-0019). Raytheon Co., Marlborough, Massachusetts, is being awarded $9,347,391 for cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price order N6339419F0002 under a previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N6339417G5103) for engineering services in support of the Aegis SPY-1 radar and Mk 99 fire control system. This order will provide technical, logistical and engineering services from the original equipment manufacturer. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this order to $19,497,003. Work will be performed in Yorktown, Virginia (90 percent); and at various ship locations (10 percent), and is expected to be completed by January 2021. Fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $960,282 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Inc., Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, has been awarded a maximum $450,000,000 firm‐fixed‐price, indefinite‐delivery/indefinite‐quantity contract for patient monitoring systems, accessories and training. This was a competitive acquisition with 36 responses received. This is a five-year base contract with one five‐year option period. Location of performance is Wisconsin, with a Jan. 10, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2D1‐19‐D‐0010). Transaero Inc.,* Melville, New York, has been awarded a maximum $23,237,500 firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for fixed landing gear. This was a competitive small business set-aside acquisition with four offers received. This is a five-year contract with no options periods. Location of performance is New York, with a Jan. 10, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-19-D-0043). AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Marietta, Georgia, has been awarded a $131,604,450 contract for C‐5 sustainment. This contract provides for sustaining engineering services. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas; Marietta, Georgia; and Palmdale, California, and is expected to be completed Jan. 25, 2019. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. A combination of fiscal 2019 transportation working capital funds; and operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $23,543,771 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8525‐19‐D‐0001). MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY Raytheon Co. (Raytheon) Space and Airborne Systems (SAS), San Diego, California, is being awarded a single award with a contract ceiling of $9,607,811 for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS) sensor support. Raytheon will provide subject matter expertise as a member of a government-led sensor development and demonstration team and will provide research, development, fielding and test support, operations, maintenance, and as-needed repairs on the government-owned MTS-class sensors. Raytheon is the sole designer, developer, and manufacturer of the MTS-class sensor. Work will be performed at El Segundo and San Diego, California. The ordering period and the period of performance is five years from the date of award. The first task order will be awarded at the same time the basic contract is awarded. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,299,520 for the first task order is being obligated at time of award. The award to Raytheon SAS is the result of a proposal submitted in response to a sole-source solicitation (HQ0147-18-R-0013) one offer was received. The Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. (HQ0147-19-D-0013). DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY CACI NSS Inc., Chantilly, Virginia, was competitively awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for $8,582,382 on Jan. 11, 2019. Contract has an effective date of Jan. 29, 2019. This award provides for non-personal Information Technology services in support of the legacy Theater Enterprise-Wide Logistics System (TEWLS) application to be known in the future as the systems, applications and products in the LogiCole application. The award will provide for pre-planned product improvement, life cycle management, and business process, and technical integration support and reengineering services for TEWLS. The contractor will provide software maintenance services to support Joint Medical Logistics Functional Development center in the configuration, technical sustainment and continued enhancement of the TEWLS as part of the Defense Medical Logistics – Enterprise Solution. The contractor place of support is Ft. Detrick, Maryland. This contract has an additional four option periods, if exercised. This contract is an acquisition under General Service Administration's IT schedule 70 with fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $8,582,382 obligated at time of award. The Defense Health Agency, Contract Operations – Health Information Technology,San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity (HT0015-19-F-0018). *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1730557/source/GovDelivery/