Page 27 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

The Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Arrives into the Combat Force

In addition, we spent time with the Life Support personnel, Mr. Jim Kristo and Ms. Jackie Williams, involved
with the helmet as well and got a sense of the way ahead with that system, which obviously work (we saw that
with Ninja flying the Atlantic in version 2 of the helmet and having nothing but praise for his helmet as well –
not needing to turn around in flight was certainly something he mentioned after he landed at Pax River.)

It is difficult to convey the richness of what we learned during the site visit, but seeing the equipment, crawling
under the jet and talking with personnel conveyed as sense of a competent team shaping a clear way ahead
for the digital airplane and the fleet. By the way, there are more than 150 flying aircraft feeding data
already into the ALIS system, with more than 50,000 flight hours.

Obviously, these maintainers came from legacy programs, F-16, F-15, A-10, B-1, B-2, and F-22. We asked
all of them what their expectations were when they came to the program, and they ranged from excitement,
to an expectation of complete discontinuity, to in one case concern that his plane was being replaced.

But across the board, the comment was that the plane was much easier to maintain than their legacy aircraft,
but it was “different” because it is a digital system. There was also the comment that changes that they would
have like to see in their legacy aircraft were anticipated and built into the F-35 program. In this sense,
although a digital aircraft, many of the changes built into the program are built upon what came before and
changes which maintainers wanted to see.

When it came to a major shift from the current USAF IMDS or Integrated Maintenance Data System to the
ALIS or Autonomic Logistics Information System, the Crew Chief explained that the new system incorporated a
number of changes which his generation of maintainers thought was needed to IMDS but done in an
integrated manner.

In his view, systems are like children which go through growth cycles, and that “ALIS is in its Toddler phase.”
But the foundation was solid and the integration of what had been disparate maintenance systems was a key
advantage of the system.

It is a point of entry system, and he had already seen gains in accuracy of input in information. The integrated
system makes it easier as well for the new maintainer to operate at a higher standard than a newbie on a
legacy aircraft.

“With the IMDS, experienced maintainers have a number of ‘cheat books’ they developed to navigate to
whatever screen number you need to find the information which you need for a particular task. ALIS presents
the data much differently and you can get rid of your old ‘cheat books’.”

But you have to learn the system; it is different.

“If you bring a legacy mindset to this and think in IMDS terms, you will not get it. You need to enter a more
integrated digital workspace and learn how it works. Then you not only get it, but you can find ways to
improve the experience and pass on your recommendations which can be later incorporated into the ongoing
revisions of the system.”

Put in simple terms, the maintainer is facing culture change, and the maintainers at Edwards are part of the
Cultural Revolution associated with bringing into service a digital aircraft. What was being put in place,
according to the crew chief, was “smarter maintenance. The USAF is getting smaller; we are expecting more
from less people and this kind of maintenance system is crucial to get there.”

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