The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is a small yet technologically intensive military service operating a diverse range of sophisticated aircraft and advanced electronic ground defence systems. Because of Australia's relative geographical isolation, excessive reliance upon overseas maintenance support - entailing length turn-around-times and costly spares pipelines - would severly hamper the operational readiness of the RAAF. To promote a high degree of self-reliance for the support of these complex equipments, the RAAF has invested heavily in Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) and associated Test Programme Sets (TPSs). The RAAF presently possesses some 60 different sets of ATE. However, the management and support of this immense range of ATE poses an interesting and somewhat unique set of challenges for a small Air Force such as the RAAF during both the acquisition and follow-on support phases. This paper describes the problems encountered and solutions adopted by the RAAF during the acquisition and follow-on support phases. The eventual goal, albeit a little idealistic, is to enhance US vendors awareness of a small Air Force's ATE and TPS logistic and technical management needs, drawing liberally from RAAF experiences in recent years. By applying these lessons, US contractors will hopefully be able to negotiate more meaningfully with foreign customers and assess their needs more realistically.
ATE procurement and management - a small Air Force's perspective
Perspektiven einer kleinen Luftwaffe bei der Beschaffung und Organisation automatischer Pruefsysteme
1986
7 Seiten
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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