NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. –The F-35 program is grappling with a parts management issue in its currently fielded version of the aircraft’s Automated Logistics Information System (ALIS) software, according to key officials.
The ALIS version currently in the field, version 2.0.1, requires a “workaround” to properly track a part once it is delivered. This is the version of the software that was fielded when the Marine Corps declared initial operational capability (IOC) for its F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing variant (STOVL) this summer.
F-35 Integration Office Director Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian said Monday the workaround, manually entering part information into the system, is being performed so that once a part is received, it is loaded into ALIS properly so a maintainer knows it is in there and the part can be monitored for how long it has been in the aircraft. This is so maintainers can track lifecycle progres for parts, he said.
Harrigian said managing parts for ALIS isn’t as simple as scanning bar codes, a common capability in many inventory management systems.
“It’s not that easy,” Harrigian told reporters here at the Air Force Association’s (AFA) Air and Space conference.
Harrigian said the F-35 program has begun to understand which parts are important enough to ensure proper coding in ALIS and which ones aren’t as important and, thus, may be entered into the system manually. The Air Force said it would not be able to respond to requests for comment by press time on Monday.
ALIS enables F-35 operators to plan ahead to maintain and sustain its systems over the lifecycle of the jet, according to F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT]. ALIS provides the information technology (IT) backbone and capabilities to continuously capture and analyze the fleet’s overall readiness.
The Air Force needs an upgraded ALIS version, 2.0.2, if it wants to reach its IOC goal of between August and December 2016. Leigh Method, senior adviser in the F-35 integration office, said Monday the F-35 program needs capabilities to operationalize the aircraft and meet IOC requirements in ALIS 2.0.2. She also said the F-35 program is working on requirements for the next version of ALIS, version 3.0.
F-35 Program Executive Officer (PEO) Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan had to defend the ALIS issues from congressional criticism earlier this spring regarding false positives. Bogdan said that sometimes when the aircraft landed, it would give maintainers indications that things were wrong when they were not. House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said the false positive rate, at the time, was around 80 percent.
Bogdan said in April that the false positive issue was a problem with the F-35’s diagnostic capability and not with ALIS itself. ALIS, he said, simply reports the information from the plane to the manufacturer. Lockheed Martin also develops ALIS.
Nevertheless, Bogdan said he expected “much improvement” regarding false positives as the F-35 program upgraded to newer versions of ALIS and got away from the older verisions on aircraft that Turner described in the 80 percent false positive range (Defense Daily, April 16).