Keep Them Flying
Written by Henry Canaday
CGF 2009 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 (November)
Now on the front lines of homeland security and still responsible for many other critical missions, the U.S. Coast Guard deploys only 204 aircraft. These are sorted into many specialized fixed and rotary wing models. The Coast Guard takes primary responsibility for depot and organic maintenance while contractors repair, overhaul and supply specific components. In fiscal 2009, the Guard spent more than $330 million on operations and maintenance with ongoing, multiyear acquisition, construction and improvement projects of $590 million.
Among fixed wing models, eight new HC-144A Ocean Sentries, built by EADS and powered by GE engines, do security, rescues, drug interdiction and other tasks. There are a total of 31 Lockheed Martin HC-130s, powered by Rolls-Royce, including seven HC-130Js, for long-range patrols on seas that cannot be patrolled well by medium-range aircraft. Twenty HU-25 Falcon jets, made by Dassault and powered by Honeywell, perform medium-range surveillance.
Helicopters include HH-65 Dolphins, which are manufactured by Eurocopter and powered by Turbomeca and are being upgraded to multimission cutter helicopters (MCH-65s) to perform searchand- rescue, law-enforcement and homeland-security missions. Nearly half the total fleet, or 102 aircraft, is composed of these HH-65s, which were primarily designed for short-range recoveries and have been extensively deployed for a variety of missions for more than two decades. Forty-two HH-60J Jayhawks, built by Sikorsky with GE engines, are being converted to MH-60Ts and are the Coast Guard’s medium-range recovery helicopters. Even more variety may be on the way. The Coast Guard is currently studying the use of high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (HAEUAVs) to operate from its cutters to extend their surveillance horizon. Land-based unmanned aircraft might also be deployed in the future.
To keep all these models performing their missions, the Coast Guard uses a bi-level maintenance program. “Depot-level maintenance and support functions are conducted at the Aviation Logistics Center [ALC], in Elizabeth City, N.C.,” explained Captain Bradley Bean of the Office of Aeronautical Engineering. “All field-level maintenance is performed organically by unit personnel. The same aircrews that maintain the aircraft are also responsible for conducting missions.” There is no intermediate level maintenance in the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard has retained organic airframe and powerplant expertise at Elizabeth City, enabling it to be more flexible in responding to emerging maintenance issues. The facility is spread across 800 acres with 700 Coast Guard and civilian workers doing all depot-level maintenance for the rotary wing fleet and almost all depot work for fixed wing aircraft. Only two or three C-130 overhauls are contracted out each year, due to capacity limits at Elizabeth City.
Bean said the service applies best-practice maintenance lessons from both other military services and commercial aviation. The Coast Guard has exploited Defense Department acquisition expertise in several ways. For example, certification by the Defense Acquisition University in project management is a core competency of the service’s aeronautical engineers. And the Coast Guard has a memorandum of understanding with the Navy’s Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force for the provision of expertise during operational tests and evaluations.
Furthermore, “like the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard is moving toward performance-based logistics [PBL] arrangements where they make sense,” Bean said. Many commonly used avionics components in the fleet are already covered by PBLs, as are rotary wing electro-optical sensor systems.
Because all Coast Guard units must be able to respond anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, aircraft must be available nearly 100 percent of the time. “As a result, most of our support contracts are structured to reward metrics such as first-time fill rate and component availability,” Bean noted.
The Coast Guard does not currently have any formal, centrally managed public-private partnerships (PPPs) with private contractors for supporting its aircraft. “However, individual units occasionally partner with local governments for logistical support, such as fuel services,” Bean said. “This is particularly advantageous at small, geographically isolated units.”
Some of the service’s maintenance challenges are distinctive. “The Coast Guard operates in a unique environment, low and slow over the water, often from unprepared fields or open flight decks,” Bean explained. “The cost associated with corrosion control and prevention will always be one of our top maintenance priorities. We continue to address this through aggressive preventive maintenance in the field and regular, comprehensive depot maintenance cycles.” With so many models and changing requirements, configuration management has also been extremely important to the Coast Guard. “It is important not only from a maintenance perspective, but it is also critical to our centralized training model and operational concept,” Bean said. “Configuration management was critical throughout our response to disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Ike. Because of our emphasis on standardized operating procedures, aircraft configuration, and maintenance practices, aircrews and maintenance teams from throughout the country were able to travel to these disasters and make immediate contributions.”
Bean said the Coast Guard’s current rotary wing fleet, much of which is now being upgraded or converted, will remain in service through 2027. However, acquisition planning required to identify replacements for MH-60Ts and MH-65s should begin in the next few years. “On the fixed wing side, we must decide whether it’s most practical to continue flying some number of C-130Hs, or whether it makes more sense to move to an all-C-130J fleet,” he said. “Meanwhile, we will continue to develop support strategies for our newly acquired HC-144s.”
SMALL, HIGHLY COMPETENT AND FLEXIBLE
Private firms that work with the Coast Guard acknowledge that the business is smaller than with other U.S. services. But they speak very highly of the Coast Guard’s maintenance expertise and the value of its relatively stable maintenance work force. And they generally see Coast Guard acquisition as a good deal less bureaucratic than that of its sister services.
Sikorsky manufactured and helps support the Coast Guard’s 42 HH-60J Jayhawks, which are now being converted to MH-60Ts. Five conversions have been done so far, and the service is modifying eight per year, according to Marcy Spencer, Sikorsky’s logistics manager for the Coast Guard. She expects MH-60Ts to be flying through 2027.
These are heavily flown aircraft, averaging 700 flying hours per year over salt water, yet readiness has been maintained at 73 percent, above the service’s goal of 71 percent. This readiness rate includes the effect of downtime for maintenance.
The Coast Guard itself overhauls and modifies Jayhawks at Elizabeth City. Sikorsky has 14 people assigned to the depot to help with maintenance, plus three people to provide engineering support of airframe and avionics. And Sikorsky experts can be sent to Coast Guard air stations when needed.
Sikorsky repairs the HH-60J’s dynamic parts, including rotary blades, main and other gearboxes and rotary heads. It also manages the repairs of some other parts by subcontractors, although not of engines or avionics, for which the Coast Guard has direct contracts with GE and Rockwell Collins.
Sikorsky support has been handled under traditional multi-year contracts. “But we are working toward a more PBL-type contract, where the Coast Guard would pay by hour,” said Frank DiPasquale, vice president for sales, marketing and strategic relationships. The company has long provided performance- based support for the U.S. Navy’s Seahawks and has similar agreements with many commercial customers.
Because the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security rather than the Defense Department, it often has more flexibility in dealing with aircraft manufacturers. “There is a lot less bureaucracy,” DiPasquale said. Although contracts are split between Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 12 and Part 15, Spencer said the service tends to use commercial Part 12 rules more often than the larger services. And the Coast Guard has a different funding stream than its sister services, which come under the Defense budget.
The Coast Guard has procured some parts for its Jayhawks under an attachment to the Navy’s PBL contract with Sikorsky. No matter how they are procured, almost all parts are shipped by Sikorsky to Elizabeth City, and the Coast Guard distributes them to air stations. In addition to routine repairs and logistics, Sikorsky is currently preparing digital electronic control installation kits for engines on MH-60Ts.
GE manufactures and helps support both the T700 engine on the HH-60J and the CT7-93C on the HC-144A, a variant of CASA’s CN235. Because the HH-60J is no longer in production, the company only supplies new engine spares and parts and does overhauls for the Coast Guard. Only three HC-144As have been delivered of an expected 30, so GE will be making many more new engines for this model.
For both engines, the Coast Guard sends either full engines or modules for overhaul to GE’s Strother, Kan., facility. Usually, the service sends just modules after inspection at its Elizabeth City ALC. “They have a test cell on base,” said Steve Manton, T700 program manager for Navy and Marines. GE has a field service representative at Elizabeth City to help with assembly and disassembly work and on-wing troubleshooting. Other Guard stations do mostly organiclevel troubleshooting.
Engine and module overhauls are done by GE under a traditional transaction contract that sets prices for each type of work. It is not a PBL or cost-per-hour agreement. Parts used in overhauls are covered by this contract, while line replaceable units (LRUs) and consumables used at other Coast Guard stations are purchased under a separate per-transaction contract.
These traditional agreements have served both sides well, according to Scott Reed, GE’s director of U.S. military programs on the T700. “The Coast Guard has a small fleet, but they have a very talented and long-service work force, with not nearly as much turnover as the Army or Navy.” Reed said Coast Guard maintenance practices tend to be a little closer to the Navy’s than the Army’s, but there is not really much difference among the services in methods used on the two GE engines.
GE is happy to be involved in the HC-144A, part of the Coast Guard’s Deep Water program, and hopes to keep working on engines for the MH-60T, a glass-cockpit upgrade of the HH-60J. Coast Guard officers attend GE briefings on engine upgrades and choose the options that suit their needs. “It is a small customer, but they are great folks and a pleasure to work with,” Manton summarizes. “They don’t break things, there are not a lot of errors, and they run a very tight ship.”
GE does have PBL agreements with both the Army and Navy, and the Coast Guard considered a PBL for its HC-144As. But early on it was not clear how the aircraft would be flown, and that has so far made structuring and pricing a PBL contract difficult.
Other Coast Guard support agreements can be multiplatform, especially for components. In January 2009, Rockwell Collins signed a 10-year extension and expansion of its support of Coast Guard aircraft. The agreement extends PBL support of HH-65s and HH-25s to the MH-60T, the HC-130H/J and HC-144A. The contract guarantees availability through spares management, logistics, field engineering, and improvements for all of Rockwell’s displays, communication, surveillance, navigation, and pilot-control systems.
“We started in 1998 with six part numbers on the HH-65,” explained Ron Junge, director of business development for Rockwell Services. “Now we support 70 part numbers and 2,600 LRUs at 20 locations for five types and more than 200 aircraft.”
Junge attributes the expansion to success. Supply- chain time has been reduced 75 percent, and mean time between failure for Rockwell parts has increased 30 percent. The PBL requires availability attributable to Rockwell parts be at 85 to 99 percent. “We are now at 99 percent plus,” Junge emphasized.
The Coast Guard handles all installation of Rockwell parts at Elizabeth City, with the aid of Rockwell field engineers. Junge said his firm’s performance-based relationship with the Coast Guard is basically similar to relationships with the other services and with commercial customers. “We are usually able to take best practices from commercial or other military customers and apply to each new agreement.”
Fortunately, negotiation of these component-level PBLs was not very difficult or lengthy. “It can take longer for a platform-level PBL, but for components, we know all the content, intellectual property, tests and sparing,” Junge explained. “We do have to make sure suppliers can handle obsolescence, but that is business as usual.” ♦
Sikorsky manufactured and helps support the Coast Guard’s 42 HH-60J Jayhawks, which are now being converted to MH-60Ts. Five conversions have been done so far, and the service is modifying eight per year, according to Marcy Spencer, Sikorsky’s logistics manager for the Coast Guard. She expects MH-60Ts to be flying through 2027.
These are heavily flown aircraft, averaging 700 flying hours per year over salt water, yet readiness has been maintained at 73 percent, above the service’s goal of 71 percent. This readiness rate includes the effect of downtime for maintenance.
The Coast Guard itself overhauls and modifies Jayhawks at Elizabeth City. Sikorsky has 14 people assigned to the depot to help with maintenance, plus three people to provide engineering support of airframe and avionics. And Sikorsky experts can be sent to Coast Guard air stations when needed.
Sikorsky repairs the HH-60J’s dynamic parts, including rotary blades, main and other gearboxes and rotary heads. It also manages the repairs of some other parts by subcontractors, although not of engines or avionics, for which the Coast Guard has direct contracts with GE and Rockwell Collins.
Sikorsky support has been handled under traditional multi-year contracts. “But we are working toward a more PBL-type contract, where the Coast Guard would pay by hour,” said Frank DiPasquale, vice president for sales, marketing and strategic relationships. The company has long provided performance- based support for the U.S. Navy’s Seahawks and has similar agreements with many commercial customers.
Because the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security rather than the Defense Department, it often has more flexibility in dealing with aircraft manufacturers. “There is a lot less bureaucracy,” DiPasquale said. Although contracts are split between Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 12 and Part 15, Spencer said the service tends to use commercial Part 12 rules more often than the larger services. And the Coast Guard has a different funding stream than its sister services, which come under the Defense budget.
The Coast Guard has procured some parts for its Jayhawks under an attachment to the Navy’s PBL contract with Sikorsky. No matter how they are procured, almost all parts are shipped by Sikorsky to Elizabeth City, and the Coast Guard distributes them to air stations. In addition to routine repairs and logistics, Sikorsky is currently preparing digital electronic control installation kits for engines on MH-60Ts.
GE manufactures and helps support both the T700 engine on the HH-60J and the CT7-93C on the HC-144A, a variant of CASA’s CN235. Because the HH-60J is no longer in production, the company only supplies new engine spares and parts and does overhauls for the Coast Guard. Only three HC-144As have been delivered of an expected 30, so GE will be making many more new engines for this model.
For both engines, the Coast Guard sends either full engines or modules for overhaul to GE’s Strother, Kan., facility. Usually, the service sends just modules after inspection at its Elizabeth City ALC. “They have a test cell on base,” said Steve Manton, T700 program manager for Navy and Marines. GE has a field service representative at Elizabeth City to help with assembly and disassembly work and on-wing troubleshooting. Other Guard stations do mostly organiclevel troubleshooting.
Engine and module overhauls are done by GE under a traditional transaction contract that sets prices for each type of work. It is not a PBL or cost-per-hour agreement. Parts used in overhauls are covered by this contract, while line replaceable units (LRUs) and consumables used at other Coast Guard stations are purchased under a separate per-transaction contract.
These traditional agreements have served both sides well, according to Scott Reed, GE’s director of U.S. military programs on the T700. “The Coast Guard has a small fleet, but they have a very talented and long-service work force, with not nearly as much turnover as the Army or Navy.” Reed said Coast Guard maintenance practices tend to be a little closer to the Navy’s than the Army’s, but there is not really much difference among the services in methods used on the two GE engines.
GE is happy to be involved in the HC-144A, part of the Coast Guard’s Deep Water program, and hopes to keep working on engines for the MH-60T, a glass-cockpit upgrade of the HH-60J. Coast Guard officers attend GE briefings on engine upgrades and choose the options that suit their needs. “It is a small customer, but they are great folks and a pleasure to work with,” Manton summarizes. “They don’t break things, there are not a lot of errors, and they run a very tight ship.”
GE does have PBL agreements with both the Army and Navy, and the Coast Guard considered a PBL for its HC-144As. But early on it was not clear how the aircraft would be flown, and that has so far made structuring and pricing a PBL contract difficult.
Other Coast Guard support agreements can be multiplatform, especially for components. In January 2009, Rockwell Collins signed a 10-year extension and expansion of its support of Coast Guard aircraft. The agreement extends PBL support of HH-65s and HH-25s to the MH-60T, the HC-130H/J and HC-144A. The contract guarantees availability through spares management, logistics, field engineering, and improvements for all of Rockwell’s displays, communication, surveillance, navigation, and pilot-control systems.
“We started in 1998 with six part numbers on the HH-65,” explained Ron Junge, director of business development for Rockwell Services. “Now we support 70 part numbers and 2,600 LRUs at 20 locations for five types and more than 200 aircraft.”
Junge attributes the expansion to success. Supply- chain time has been reduced 75 percent, and mean time between failure for Rockwell parts has increased 30 percent. The PBL requires availability attributable to Rockwell parts be at 85 to 99 percent. “We are now at 99 percent plus,” Junge emphasized.
The Coast Guard handles all installation of Rockwell parts at Elizabeth City, with the aid of Rockwell field engineers. Junge said his firm’s performance-based relationship with the Coast Guard is basically similar to relationships with the other services and with commercial customers. “We are usually able to take best practices from commercial or other military customers and apply to each new agreement.”
Fortunately, negotiation of these component-level PBLs was not very difficult or lengthy. “It can take longer for a platform-level PBL, but for components, we know all the content, intellectual property, tests and sparing,” Junge explained. “We do have to make sure suppliers can handle obsolescence, but that is business as usual.” ♦