Read on Twitter
Good morning, world! Today's the day for the House Oversight and Reform Committee's big F-35 hearing. That doesn't start until 10, but I figured I'd give you all a primer of what to expect.
Here's your background, by @reporterjoe and myself. I want you guys to read the whole story this time because the top part will likely be very close to what lawmakers ask about and what their concerns are: https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/06/23/house-committee-targets-lockheed-in-probe-of-f-35-parts-problems/
But I want to draw your attention to the last couple of paragraphs
"The number of F-35 parts considered 'ready to issue,' or able to be accepted by the aircraft immediately after arriving on base, has already increased from an average of only 50 percent to a high of 87 percent."
"The number of F-35 parts considered 'ready to issue,' or able to be accepted by the aircraft immediately after arriving on base, has already increased from an average of only 50 percent to a high of 87 percent."
Expect that to be the major argument you hear from the F-35 joint program office, Defense Department and Lockheed Martin officials.
Again, read the story to find a fuller explanation of what's happening here.
Again, read the story to find a fuller explanation of what's happening here.
But let's back up a bit and talk about ALIS and EELs, because you're going to be hearing about them both a lot today.
ALIS is the Autonomic Logistics Information System. Think of it the F-35's Lockheed-made IT backbone used for maintenance, mission planning, ordering parts, etc.
ALIS is the Autonomic Logistics Information System. Think of it the F-35's Lockheed-made IT backbone used for maintenance, mission planning, ordering parts, etc.
EELs are "electronic equipment logs." Think of them as a digital record of all of the data associated with certain complex, repairable or safety critical F-35 parts. That log will show you who made a part and when, when it was installed in a jet, when it's been fixed, etc.
So the F-35 program is trying to do something here that is actually pretty smart. The thinking is, if you have an enterprise-wide IT system (ALIS) that can track parts from cradle to grave (using EELs), you can use that data to inform maintenance and buying practices.
The problem is...that's not the way this has been playing out in the field. Part of the issue here is ALIS itself. The idea behind ALIS is very smart and, if it worked properly, would simplify a lot of tasks done by maintainers/support personnel.
But that's not happening.
But that's not happening.
So what's wrong with ALIS? I wrote about it in more detail here, but the easiest way to think about it this is the Geocities of airplane logistics systems: Great for 2001, not so great in 2020. Technology has marched on. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/02/01/bad-data-in-f-35-logistics-system-resulting-in-lost-missions/
There have been a lot of separate issues with ALIS not prioritizing spare parts properly, needing tedious workarounds to function, or just not putting out data that maintainers trust. For example: https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/06/01/some-of-the-oldest-f-35s-on-the-globe-are-forced-to-sit-and-wait-for-upgrades/
The Air Force in 2019 decided to create an agile software development team to try to modernize and upgrade ALIS software, but eventually the Pentagon just opted to phase out ALIS and bring on a new system, known as ODIN, in 2022. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/02/27/how-the-us-air-forces-kessel-run-team-plans-to-solve-one-of-the-f-35-programs-biggest-headaches/
So let's talk about the problem with EELs. We've written about it pretty extensively here: https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/06/12/inventory-management-failures-are-grounding-f-35-jets/
But let's put it in layman's terms. Think of it as when you go the supermarket and buy a gallon of milk but the barcode doesn't work. Only you can't just use another gallon of milk's barcode, because every gallon has a unique barcode and you just bought the last gallon of milk.
So then the person at the register has to call the farm to try to find the special barcode of the last gallon of milk and she's on the phone crosschecking all of the gallons of milk that were delivered in that shipment to find the right one, and meanwhile you're...standing there.
That's basically what's happening with the EELs. Somewhere along the way, the identifying information associated with an F-35 part just isn't right, and so ALIS doesn't recognize it, and a lot of people have to do a lot of work to fix that discrepancy.
So back to the first story I tweeted, here’s something that has happened within the past few months to help fix some of these issues:
I imagine we'll be hearing a lot more about what's happening to fix EELs today, because it seems like a lot of work has been done since December 2019 to help mitigate this problem.
Anyway, that's your primer, kids. Get to reading and be ready for the hearing at 10.
Anyway, that's your primer, kids. Get to reading and be ready for the hearing at 10.
