Impact of the Integrated Maintenance Concept on EA-6B Readiness and Maintenance Support at NAS Whidbey Island, WA and NADEP Jacksonville, FL.

摘要

Faced with an aging Navy air force, the EA-6B, a piece of the aging aircraft inventory puzzle, is included in a mandated program called Integrated Maintenance Concept (IMC.) IMC incorporates a maintenance process called Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) to establish and adjust preventative maintenance requirements. The premise of the program is to justify each preventative maintenance action to maintain obsolescent airframes while reducing aircraft out-of-service-time and operating support costs. The implementation of a preventative maintenance program validated by RCM coupled with the fixed period end date (PED) will, in theory, reduce total ownership costs (TOC) to include reduced depot level turn around and scheduled maintenance time. The objective of this thesis is to ascertain how the move from SDLM to IMC is impacting the community from all perspectives and their views on readiness and supportability. To gather data, the researcher conducted on site interviews with key players at all levels of maintenance support. IMC, with the incorporation of RCM justified preventative maintenance actions can positively impact the life of the aircraft. However, to make it possible, the depot field site has to be fully supported and the organizational and intermediate levels manned at appropriate levels and training in structures repair, priority.