Evaluating Alternative Maintenance Manpower Force Structure Concepts for the F-35a
Wirth, Anna Jean; Light, Thomas; Romano, Daniel M.; Tierney, Shane; McGarvey, Ronald G. (2020). Evaluating Alternative Maintenance Manpower Force Structure Concepts for the F-35a. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, The. ISBN 978-1-9774-0534-0.
- Has attachment: File:ET3XSZPG.pdf
Abstract: The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has a goal of reducing the life cycle operating and support (O&S) costs of the F-35A. Maintenance manpower is a significant driver of O&S costs, and consolidation and reorganization of maintenance career fields could reduce manpower and training costs. Such consolidations might also apply to other objectives, including reducing aircraft downtime due to maintenance, improving combat resiliency, and developing a maintenance workforce that can be employed in leaner, more-mobile adaptive basing concepts. The authors of this report evaluate the costs and benefits of six F-35A maintenance manpower force structures that merge maintenance career fields in different ways, including two alternatives that are being explored by the USAF at the time of publication: the Blended Operational Lightning Technician (BOLT) and the Lightning Integrated Technician (LIT). In addition to quantifying impacts to O&S costs if merged Air Force Specialty (AFS) concepts are adopted, the authors discuss the applicability of such concepts to future basing concepts and identify implementation challenges. The analysis finds that some-but not all-merged AFS concepts offer the potential to increase readiness through increased sortie-generation capability or lower O&S costs through manpower efficiencies, but significant barriers to implementation exist. If the USAF adopts merged AFS concepts, only those that are aggressive mergers of career fields-such as BOLT and LIT-should be pursued. Additionally, before adopting merged career field concepts, the USAF should further explore implementation barriers identified in the analysis, particularly those related to maintainer proficiency and training.
"...Typically, we think of aircraft operating from a single location and getting full support at that location. But there are several situations in which it might be advantageous to integrate capabilities across two or more locations. Generally, the ideas for such integration involve a hub that provides full support and one or more other locations that provide more limited support. The motivation could be for survival or for increased operational potential. For instance, the USAF could group a large base with one or more modest locations, which would provide options to recover and turn aircraft, should their primary location come under attack, or simply to complicate adversary targeting to create uncertainties about operating locations and airfield dispositions. In April 2019, Pacific Air Force (PACAF) conducted the “Resilient Typhoon” exercise in support of this concept, in which aircraft dispersed from Andersen AFB in Guam to several operating locations in Guam, Tinian and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, Micronesia, and Palau (Everstine, 2019)..."
Extra details:
OCLC: on1198249867 DOI: 10.7249/rr4433 MAG: 3082081916 OpenAlex: W3082081916 CorpusID: 225338536
