Digitizing Systems Sustainment for Presidential Helicopter through CTMA

As maintaining legacy equipment becomes more important and yet more challenging for the DOD, the CTMA Program is a popular go-to vehicle for solving the toughest maintenance and sustainment hurdles. But lessons learned with legacy equipment will also benefit new platforms to maintain high levels of mission-ready equipment. The fleet of 23 NAVAIR VH-92A helicopters, also known as the Presidential Helicopter squadron, is tasked with transporting the sitting U.S. President and other high-level government officials. It is a relatively new platform replacing the VH-60N and VH-3D and is flown by the Marine Helicopter Squadron One. (HMX-1). The CTMA Program has been chosen as the contract vehicle to demonstrate digitization of the maintenance and sustainment activities for this platform. 

Both the DOD and commercial industry are experiencing the need to develop strategies to elongate the lifespans of their workhorse equipment. By digitizing the maintenance and sustainment data, the captured information can be entered into the Maintenance Management Information Systems (MMIS) which will proactively inform important decisions such as scheduled maintenance, inventory levels, parts forecasting, and other critical end-to-end lifecycle information.  

Partnering with NAVAIR and industry participant Naval Systems, Inc., the Digitizing Systems Sustainment initiative is a multi-phased collaborative effort that demonstrates an enterprise portfolio management prototype pilot project. 

The MMIS will draw from data gathered from disparate sources, starting with global historical utilization data for the aircraft, Original Equipment Manufacturers, parts suppliers, Fleet Readiness Center inventory levels, and other raw data inputs from all over the world through the Internet of Things to provide a clear picture of the maintenance and sustainment needs of this platform. This data will be synthesized and analyzed to ensure the highest level of productivity. This system could also interface with other disruptive technologies such as additive manufacturing, allowing the ability for parts to be printed at the point of need.  

“The results of this initiative will have huge implications to both government and industry,” says Adam Korinek, Senior Director of Business Development with NCMS. “This is an area where even small efficiencies have profound implications.”