Like Your Helicopter? Lockheed Martin Has an App to Decrease Total Ownership Cost

By Karmyn Norwood, Deputy Vice President of Sensors and Global Sustainment and Vice President of Rotary Wing and Ground Program

As budgets continue to shrink, innovative sustainment technology can help defense departments increase efficiency and save money as they look to maintain systems that area already fielded.

Global sustainment is a key part of helping our customers stay at-the-ready, but perhaps even more important is its impact on long-term affordability.

Development and procurement traditionally account for about 20-30% of a product’s total ownership cost, while costs to operate, maintain and dispose of it account for about 70-80 % of the total.

Why Sustainment Matters

The Sustainment Success System™ is how Lockheed Martin infuses sustainment across a product’s lifecycle to keep systems up and running at less cost.

With service personnel on the flight line, front line or at sea, we relentlessly advance their tools, platforms and training so they are ready to go whenever and wherever the mission calls.

Technological advances have made it easier for us to provide customer training and seamless support even during an unprecedented global pandemic. We are exploring augmented and virtual reality, mobile and web applications, multi-data type visualization, supply chain simulators, holistic user experience and design for manufacturer processes. Check out some examples of these advances, below.

Interactive Training At Your Fingertips

RELY3D -- RELY3D is an interactive suite of applications that supports Apache aircraft maintainers with M-TADS/PNVS virtual guides, 3-D animations, wiring diagrams and more.Transforming the world of maintenance, RELY3D offers interactive training and features that support the reduction of maintenance time on the Apache M-TADS/PNVS system. We continue to push out updated versions of RELY3D so we’re constantly looking for ways to improve models and experience – it’s even been a great way for us to help onboard new employees, too.

Yeah, There’s An App For That

Field Support Mobile Application – Although one usually associates mobile apps with Facebook or a game, the Field Support Mobile Application can assist with flight-line trouble-shooting and user collaboration. There’s a feature allowing the user to input failure codes to see what might need to be replaced, from parts to wires.The app will even search for flight error messages in the cockpit. The user simply has to download the app, which also has points of contact available by for call, text or email in the contacts center.

OLAF, Not The Talkative Snowman

OLAF – No, it’s not sun-loving snowman we love, but rather something else you can probably love just as much. The Operations and Logistics Augmentation Framework (OLAF) is a platform agnostic visualization framework that the Missiles and Fire Control division uses for cross-compatibility with other systems, with an open architecture and multi-use-case ecosystem. OLAF encourages collaborative knowledge transfer, information sharing and transparent-operations between program life-cycle processes.

We’re always looking at ways to integrate new tools and technologies into our sustainment programs that will help reduce response times, empower our customer to quickly identify issues and them work efficiently through possible challenges.

About The Author

Karmyn Norwood,
 
Deputy Vice President
 
Karmyn Norwood is the deputy vice president of the Sensors and Global Sustainment (S&GS) Line of Business and vice president of Rotary Wing & Ground Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Company in Orlando, Florida. 
 
Norwood is responsible for establishing strategy, direction and execution oversight for the full product lifecycle of domestic and international products for all rotary wing and ground programs including Apache and Advanced Rotary Wing & Ground Systems. As the deputy vice president of S&GS, she provides programmatic performance, risk and opportunity assessments and recommendations.