Falcon Flex-a new F-16 business practice

Abstract

This paper discusses and demonstrates how the F-16 Logistics Operations Division at the Ogden Air Logistics Center has been successfully applying the FS concepts and strategies even before they were formalized. The first applications took place in the early 1990's while the concept of performance based acquisition (PBA) was just germinating. These first F-16 applications were born out of necessity and good engineering sense. It was reasoned that it did not make good engineering or economic sense to pay a premium to buy old technology that failed often and was expensive to repair, when the current technology that performed the same function seldom fails and costs much less. This reasoning has been successfully applied to the F-16 ANIAPG-68 Radar System, yielding a $450 million dollar repair cost avoidance over the life of the weapon system, substantially increased system readiness, and improved system performance. A formal Falcon Flex Business Process Guide has been developed that focuses on the lowest level cost drivers and supportability issues to trigger the process. The guide leads the integrated product team (IPT) through a series of steps systematically progressing to the lowest cost and greatest benefit solution. A Falcon Flex database capturing over two and a half years of detailed depot repair data has been developed. This database provides insight into F-16 depot avionics repairs down to the lowest component level. The challenges and pitfalls of raising the level of configuration control for PBA procured assemblies, subassemblies and components as well as the critical importance of rigorous system integration testing are discussed.