Aging Avionics in Military Aircraft (2001) / Chapter Skim
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4 Analysis of the Current Situation
4 Analysis of the Current Situation
Pages 25-38
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From page 25... ...
This chapter presents the committee's analyses of major challenges to solving the problem of aging avionics in the four most important issue areas: Air Force enterprise-management processes; budget/funding 25 management processes; technical issues; and business issues. GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE-MANAGEMENT PROCESSES The coordinated management of the aging avionics problem in a complex organization like the Air Force and a rapidly changing technological environment raises several concerns: fragmented responsibilities in DoD for managing the problem and activities that cut across all of the services; attracting and retaining support personnel for new and upgraded weapon systems; training air crews and support personnel for new systems; and keeping track and control of constantly changing avionics configurations in the fleet.
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From page 26... ...
importance of Avionics Modernization Road Maps A practical, affordable approach to assessing and managing the problem in terms of a single platform must begin with the preparation of avionics modernization road maps for each platform, emphasizing planned, periodic upgrades. If supported by a concurrent budgeting plan, a series of cost-effective, systematic, periodic (every two to three years)
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From page 27... ...
In addition, tightly coordinated management for DoD architectural standards is necessary, rather than the loosely integrated leadership of JTA, coupled with the somewhat disconnected management of the JTA, GIG, and MOSA. Need for New, /nnovative Contracting Approaches Current DoD contracting approaches generally do not provide positive incentives to either government contracting offices or defense contractors for reducing product cost to the government.
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From page 28... ...
Relevant activities include: training logisticians to develop and execute plans across platforms to solve aging avionics problems; training configuration management specialists to keep track of all changes and their downstream effects; and training mission planners to consider the effects of changes in avionics on sortie rate and misslon performance. The acquisition of systems for all of the active and reserve services is performed by two groups of personnel: (1)
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From page 29... ...
because avionics product cycles are driven by the commercial market, whereas DoD acquisition cycles are complex Peak total market sales I Integrated circuit / supply / / I ntegrated / circuit / life cycle Refine / integrated / circuit / design / Integrated / circuit / birth / / a/ \ 0 5 \Nonavailability FIGURE 4-1 Life-cycle mismatch. Source: Wasson, 2000.
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From page 30... ...
Periodic upgrades, which would be specified in evolving platform road maps, could be an effective strategy for addressing the aging avionics problem, especially if it were combined with MOSA architectures that emphasize ease of change. Colors of Money To ensure that appropriated funds are used for their intended purpose, Congress has placed a number of legal restrictions on funds available to address the aging avionics problem: .
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From page 31... ...
The committee supports these efforts, but additional funding should be made available to support well documented opportunities to reduce avionics TOC. Revolving funds, such as the Working Capital Fund, to which all of the services contribute, may provide a possible mechanism for providing these funds.
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From page 32... ...
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics has chartered the Open Systems Joint Task Force to coordinate and motivate DoD MOSA activities and to solicit inputs from industry. The task force has characterized an open system as "a design based on nonproprietary interface standards broadly accepted and used throughout industry" (Logan, 2000~.
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From page 33... ...
A crucial enabler for the design and implementation of MOSA-driven avionics architectures is a set of "building codes" that govern system interfaces, module/functional definition processes, software languages, interconnect characteristics, and other global system parameters. Rigorous definition of modules, preferably through executable simulation objects, will be particularly important.
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From page 34... ...
on a system design and a maturity model of system engineering capability. Database for the Reuse of Designs An integral part of the MOSA design strategy will be providing easy access to reusable design fragments, AGING AVIONICS IN MILITARY AIRCRAFT including examples from which pieces can be extracted and examples of applied interface standards illustrating how they can be applied to solve difficult problems (especially the incorporation of advanced technology that might easily be considered incompatible or in conflict with the standards)
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From page 35... ...
DoD/Air Force acquisition practices can affect the "balance" because the buyer determines whether the prime or subsystem supplier is responsible for various upgrade programs. As a rule, normal market forces will resolve these issues, but DoD should consider industrial base issues as part of its acquisition process.
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From page 36... ...
are expected in the foreseeable future, airframe suppliers will be motivated to increase their aircraft-maintenance and upgrade business. The tendency of prime contractors to retain more avionics development/manufacturing in house and the degree of openness of the avionics architecture they propose will have a major effect on the market (and level of function)
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From page 37... ...
, which requires that 50 percent of the depot maintenance workload in certain core technology areas be performed by government employees. This law has had the desired effect of bringing maintenance work that had been contracted out back to the depots but has also raised serious industry concerns.2 The depots have the expertise and institutional memory to maintain legacy avionics systems most efficiently, and the committee believes they should continue to do so.
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From page 38... ...
The need for system flexibility and extensibility, coupled with the tremendous competitive leverage of reusing hardware, software, and/or intellectual property, and the need to make more effective use of a limited supply of capable personnel, have forced industry in that direction. Joint industry/government development of the arch lecture for the joint tactical radio system, industry interaction with the Open System Joint Task Force, and support from the National Center for Advanced Technologies to the Office for Aging Avionics, Aeronautical Systems Center, and the Open System Joint Task Force for MOSA, are examples of effective industry/ government relationships.
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