The Army is on the verge of a paradigm shift in the way it leverages data from maintenance of aviation, ground and weapons systems.
At a Nov. 7 Predictive Maintenance Industry Day at the Jackson Center in Huntsville, Alabama, representatives from the Army Materiel Command shared with industry partners the Army’s vision for developing and applying a predictive maintenance capability that will improve materiel readiness.
“We want to move forward with predictive, analytical capabilities for Army platforms,” said Lisha Adams, AMC executive deputy to the commanding general. “This effort will enable the Army to drive progress in readiness, modernization and reform from a sustainment and logistics perspective.”
Adams called on industry partners to provide feedback to the Army proposal, as their solutions will help the Army improve efficient use of resources for both legacy and modern systems.
“This effort has equal value for our technically sophisticated systems containing hundreds of sensors, as well as our legacy systems that have few-to-no sensors collecting data,” said Col. John Kuenzli, AMC’s lead of the predictive maintenance competition.
The goal is to identify and predict mechanical failures throughout Soldiers’ equipment to ensure the Army’s supply chain, which is comprised of thousands of industry and Army organizations, is synchronized with tactical unit needs, Kuenzli said.
“We’re going to provide a capability that improves the decisions our maintenance technicians and mechanics make every day to provide the Army’s Soldiers with battle-ready equipment,” he said.
Prototype options developed by industry will be tested on the M1A2 Abrams tank, the Stryker combat vehicle and the AH-64 D/E Apache helicopter, said Kuenzli.
Army Materiel Command is conducting the competition through the use of an Other Transaction Agreement. Army Contracting Command–New Jersey Director Thomas Dougherty described the features of the OTA contract to industry participants, noting it opens the competition to non-traditional and traditional defense contractors.
“This prototype OTA is a common-sense, flexible and efficient way for the Army to reach out to commercial entities and non-traditional defense contractors to get their best commercial solutions,” said Dougherty.
Dougherty likened the OTA contracting tool to an additional arrow in the government’s “quiver” of solutions to contract with industry and academia.
Army Materiel Command expects prototype contract award options will be awarded in February 2019, with a one-year period of performance.