Nigel Pittaway | Melbourne
ALIS is the operations and management system for the F-35 and is a highly complex and integrated system, providing the operations, maintenance and training interface with the aircraft.
It is a software-driven system pivotal to the operation of the F-35 and, like most software-intensive projects, has proved challenging. A lot of extra resources have recently been applied to develop it to a standard necessary for US Marine Corps Initial Operational Capability in July.
Each nation will acquire and operate its own ALIS systems as part of an integrated logistic network environment. This will present challenges for each nation, in particular integration within their ICT systems, integrating with extant operational, maintenance, training and supply processes, and meeting national regulation and certification requirements.
The establishment of an ALIS system in Australia well in advance of the requirement is the critical first step in de-risking these issues for Australia.
Through the Looking Glass – ALIS described
ALIS is the ‘IT backbone’ of F-35 operations, by which operators plan, maintain and sustain the aircraft throughout its service life.
It is used in all flight operations (mission planning and scheduling, tracking pilot qualifications and training) and maintenance (aircraft and personnel records and the hosting of technical data), host the training system and is the interface with the aircraft and supply management system.
Support and test equipment are also supported by the system and the prognostic health management system provides a means for the operator and manufacturer to monitor aircraft health throughout its life.
Lockheed Martin says that the data passed back to Fort Worth is aggregated to allow reliability monitoring, but the interface is also used for customer support, including engineering reach back and performance-based logistics management.
A ruggedized laptop provides the interface with the aircraft and is part of a ‘Ship and Squadron Kit’, which includes Standard (or Squadron) Operating Unit (SOU) servers and mission planning equipment.
Data is sent from the SOU to a Central Services Kit in each country, which comprises of Central Point of Entry servers. In Australia a CPE at Williamtown will be the repository for sovereign data.
From each CPE a ‘core’ data set is shared with the Global Sustainment Kit in Fort Worth, which houses Autonomic Logistics Operating Unit servers and is intended to provide data to manage and support the global fleet.
Six impossible things before breakfast – ALIS development
ALIS development has proven challenging for Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office and system maturity was not at the level to support operational flying when F-35s began reaching training squadrons.
The system was also criticised in a US Director of Operational Test & Evaluation, including the SOU being too cumbersome for deployment as intended. In response Lockheed Martin has since developed a more portable unit, known as SOU(V2).
It also developed a software upgrade, known as Version 1.0.3A331, now successfully rolled out to all operating bases and is now in the final testing of Version 2.0.0.2, an important stepping stone to the version (2.0.1.0) which will support Marines IOC.
The manufacturer has also developed a Portable Memory Device reader which takes information from the ‘brick’ used to upload mission information from ALIS into the aircraft. Sensor, maintenance and performance data is saved to the ‘brick’ during flight and the development of the reader has significantly increased the speed of post-flight download.
“For a typical flight of 1 to 1.5 hours we were taking 45 minutes to an hour to download the data into ALIS,” Mark Perreault, Lockheed Martin’s ALIS development director explained to ADM. “After the insertion of the PMD reader we are able to process that same amount of data in 15-20 minutes.”
Another benefit of the 2.0 software release is that capability of the CPE has significantly increased. “The CPE is a piece of the architecture where data from each country is collected and from there it will flow back into the larger enterprise in Fort Worth,” Perreault continued.
“That increases the capability for the reporting at country level, which is something all the partners are interested in, so they have a better total fleet understanding from an F-35 perspective.”
Flight testing of Version 2.0 software provided early feedback which has been used to develop 2.0.0.2, which was inserted into flight test sites in the US last October and will be rolled out to the operational bases in the March timeframe.
“There are always challenges in development, but right now we think ALIS will be ready for the Marine Corps IOC,” Perreault said.
Regarding sovereignty, he said discussions with Australia and other partner nations were ongoing.
“There is the intention for Australian nationals to be part of the ALIS administration team. Each country is approaching it a little bit differently, just as each of the services in the US are, so it’s going to be somewhat based on the country’s preferences and what’s allowable within the constraints of the permit,” he said.
Begin at the beginning – ALIS for Australia
According to Australia’s JSF Program Manager Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble, preparations for the arrival of the first aircraft in 2018 are well under way, with $1.477 billion of infrastructure works tabled with the Public Works Committee in October last year and the final closure of the Environmental Impact Study due in March.
“Generally speaking things are working in the direction we want. From an overall program perspective it is progressing and maturing. It’s a very complex program but we see things are continually moving forward and we don’t have steps back anymore,” he reported.
“The real challenge is establishing the capability here in Australia and learning from our experiences in the US, gaining exposure of how the aircraft is operated, from a maintenance and engineering and from an operational perspective, which will be the key to establishing the capability here.”
The JSF Project Office has contracted with Lockheed Martin to establish an ALIS SOU emulation, known as ‘SOU Light’ at the LM offices in Canberra. This is being used to play out ‘a day in the life of’ key personnel like maintainers and logisticians, to both understand the system and contribute to its development.
“The opportunity we have with the SOU Light is to get a better understanding of how ALIS does business, how various functions performed are inter-related, what it’s like to interact with compared to the systems we currently operate and to begin exposing our people to what it does,” AVM Deeble noted.
“I want to expose our people to this as much as I possibly can, to ensure we are learning as we go, rather than getting it and then starting on that learning curve.”
One critical element will be to work with the Chief Information Officer Group (CIOG) to understand what it will take to certify ALIS in the Defence information environment. Also, because ALIS is so different, AVM Deeble notes a ‘significant culture change’ will be required within Defence and both of these issues are being assisted by the SOU Light.
“It’s a very tightly coupled capability, the heart of operating the JSF and without it, it would be very difficult to pull the capability together,” he explained. “Most countries, including the US, have multiple systems providing the mix of functionality required to support an aircraft. ALIS tries to combine it all in to one form factor and that indeed is one of the big development challenges.”
The advantage is that, within boundaries, all F-35 operators use the same system and therefore share development costs, so the SOU Light is being used to determine what changes can be made to better meet RAAF functionality requirements.
Australia has a maintenance engineer in the US who will be using ALIS to support the two RAAF aircraft and more engineers, maintainers and logistics personnel will join him in the future. Their collective experience will be used to understand how ALIS does business and what it means for Australian operations.
“Ensuring we understand the issues associated with operating the ALIS system in Australia before we have an aircraft operating here is a key issue for the JSF Program Office. ALIS will require some fundamental changes to the way in which we operate, maintain and support aircraft in Australia. It will require major changes to our processes and must still be compliant with Australian legislative and regulatory requirements. In many ways this is a significant culture change program for the support of our aircraft, with implications across the Australian Defence Organisation,” AVM Deeble commented.
“We have a bit more work we need to do in understanding these issues and I’m certain that we are not the only partner nation which has our own integration, legislative or regulatory requirements to be satisfied in that regard,” AVM Deeble noted.
“So we are trying to get an understanding of that and we hope set up an emulation of the CPE and the interface to the US-based ALOU in Australia, which will be an important part of that overall equation for us in the not too distant future.
AVM Deeble also predicts opportunities for Australian industry within ALIS, potentially working collaboratively alongside Australian Public Service and military personnel.
“In many regards, ALIS is the hub for JSF operations and will require very close co-operation across the JSF enterprise,” he said. “Similarly, we would be looking to potentially tailor the system to better meet our Australian needs, which may offer further industry opportunities, but we will need to operate the system in order to understand these issues. The ALIS emulation we have currently established will help us in getting ahead of the game.”