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PILOT PROGRAMS TO
REDUCE TOTAL OWNERSHIP COSTS
(R-TOC)

CH-47 CHINOOK ARMY CARGO HELICOPTER

Description

The Weapon System

As the only U.S. Army heavy lift cargo helicopter, the CH-47 Chinook has a mission to transport weapons, ammunition, equipment, troops and other cargo in general support of combat units and operations other than war. 300 of 431 CH-47D models will be upgraded to the CH-47F. It will feature a new digital cockpit with a new electronic architecture allowing seamless interface with other systems on the digital battlefield; the airframe will be modified to reduce O&S costs; and the engine will be upgraded to a more powerful and reliable T55-GA-714A turboshaft engine as the result of a separate CH-47D Chinook engine upgrade program.

Production Status, Population, and Planned Life

The CH-47F program will remanufacture 300 of the current fleet of 431 CH-47D Chinook airframes.

Prime contractor: Boeing, Philadelphia, PA; AlliedSignal, Greer, SC and Phoenix, AZ; Robertson Aviation, Tempe, AZ

Office of Primary Responsibility: Project Manager, Cargo Helicopters, Redstone Arsenal, AL

R-TOC Focus Areas: (From USD (AT&L) memorandum dated May 10, 1999)

  1. Reduced demand from weapon systems via reliability and maintainability improvements
    • The program office is establishing a quantitative baseline of O&S costs and sources of downtime through an aggressive search and review of numerous data sources. The Advanced Maintenance Aid, Chinook (AMAC) is being developed to manage information on fleet maintenance and downtime. It assembles technical data on the system, develops electronic cards to guide performance of maintenance tasks, and compiles maintenance and downtime data for assessment by the user, higher headquarters, the contractor, and others concerned with fleet management.
    • A program is underway to reduce O&S costs through the joint development with the United Kingdom of a low-maintenance rotor hub.

  2. Reduced supply chain response times, leading to reduced spares, system support footprint, and depot needs
    • The development of the AMAC has enabled the PMO to re-engineer the scheduled maintenance process. Plans call for discontinuing the current Phase Maintenance program, which will stop unnecessary aircraft disassembly during routine inspections and eliminate opportunities for parts loss and cannibalization. Replacing Phase Maintenance with a regular maintenance schedule should reduce the daily inspection workload by 20%, reduce corrective maintenance downtime, and increase operational readiness.
    • A partnering effort is underway with CECOM to update and digitize non-airframe technical manuals.

  3. Competitive sourcing of product support, leading to streamlining and overhead reductions
    • Soldier Focused Logistics (SFL), a new initiative, is developing a pilot Performance Based Logistics (PBL) program. The program will allow the program office to understand the root causes of demand, which drives inventory requirements. Demand rate management activities will be conducted and demand rate reduction opportunities will be identified through this process.

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05302003