EA-6B SBT completes first IMC prototype

By Daphne Burke, NAVAIR Depot Jax Public Affairs Specialist

The Naval Air Depot Jacksonville (NAVAIR Depot Jax) Prowler team recently completed its first prototype Integrated Maintenance Concept (IMC) Planned Maintenance Interval-1 (PMI-1) for an EA-6B. The IMC is a Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) endorsed, NAVAIR directed initiative that calls for selected aircraft programs to transition to fixed operational service periods using Reliability-Centered Maintenance analysis as a sustained maintenance planning base.

According to Dave Mobley, the EA-6B assistant product manager, the primary goal of this initiative is to integrate all the aircraft Organizational, Intermediate, and Depot-level Maintenance events, and in doing so significantly reduce aircraft out-of-service time. In addition, it is expected that this initiative will also reduce long-term maintenance costs and improve the material condition of the EA-6B aircraft.

The Depot portion of IMC can be broken into four PMI events (PMI-1, PMI-2, etc.). The PMI events are scheduled on a two-year cycle with PMI-1 being a Depot event and events two through four being field events, the end result being an eight-year cycle. At each PMI event, Depot representatives perform event specific inspections of the aircraft and determine what maintenance or repairs are required. David Buffin, EA-6B examination and evaluation (E&E) planning and estimating (P&E) supervisor explained, “By examining and repairing aircraft in PMI levels, we can maintain the material condition of the aircraft through the eight-year cycle instead of waiting until it gets back to a Depot facility to repair problems that may have worsened over the cycle.”

Mobley explained that this is a potential improvement to the old way of doing business under the SDLM/Aircraft Service Period Adjustment (ASPA) concept. Under the SDLM/ASPA concept, the aircraft would complete SDLM and not be inspected by a Depot for three years. The ASPA inspection consists of the Depot sending a team of planners and examiners out to inspect an aircraft. They identify necessary repairs and determine, based on the physical condition of the aircraft, whether or not its service period can be extended another 12 months. Typically, the service period would be extended three to five times. This means that an aircraft could be in service for seven or eight years without receiving any significant Depot-level maintenance. “Also, the IMC mandates the corrections of discrepancies found as a result of the inspection, whereas under the SDLM/ASPA concept, there was no requirement for squadrons to fix, or have fixed, any discrepancies found as a result of the inspection unless they were classified as flight critical,” Buffin added.

“With the IMC, we still go inspect the planes, but instead of looking to see if it can stay in service for another 12 months, we inspect it to find out what repairs need to be done right then and there to keep the aircraft in a optimal state of operational readiness” said Mobley.

With the current war on terrorism in full swing, maintaining operational readiness has never been more important, and ensuring future readiness is equally important as the war effort is likely to continue for some time. The IMC falls directly in-line with the Chief of Naval Operations’ top five priorities, number two being current readiness and number three being future readiness. The Depot’s mission is to provide a full range of high quality maintenance, engineering, logistic, and support services to the Fleet. Through the IMC initiative the Depot can achieve its mission more effectively. With the successful completion of the first PMI 1 event at NAVAIR Depot Jax and multiple PMI 2’s, 3’s and 4’s in the field, the Prowler team has demonstrated their commitment to doing all they can to contribute to the continuing success of the Depot and the Fleet.

– USN –