Where Sustainment Meets Deployed Forces: Do You Really Know Who's Going to Maintain Your Aircraft and Where It's Going to be Maintained?

Abstract : Did you know that an 18-year-old is fixing a $55 million aircraft on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier at night, with rolling seas and salt spray shooting across the flight deck? Did you know that a 20-year-old is on deployment in Afghanistan maintaining an aircraft that just landed in a sandstorm? And, finally, did you know that a South Korean aerospace company is performing scheduled depot maintenance on U.S. Marine Corps helicopters? How can one possibly plan to maintain aircraft in such myriad environments, cultures and geographically dispersed locations? A key question to ask as acquisition professionals is: Have we properly equipped those maintainers with everything that they need to effectively and affordably perform the maintenance that is required so those aircraft can quickly return to an operational status in order to support training and combat operations? Let s discuss how it is possible to properly equip these maintainers for success and how Naval Aviation is approaching maintenance planning, scheduling and execution (MPS&E).