Greece is in the midst of an upgrade program right now. The Hellenic Air Force is increasing the capabilities of eighty-four F-16’s, turning them into “Vipers.” This essentially brings the Block 52 aircraft up to the equivalent of a Block 72 configuration.
The logistics for such a project are, to put it mildly, daunting. The Viper upgrades extend to almost every aspect of the plane including the avionics package, radar capabilities, and cockpit display system, all connected by a high-speed data network. The additions also include an advanced weapons package. It’s a project where the details threaten to overwhelm the big picture.
The solution to that potential chaos is a software package by ILIAS Solutions.
“ILIAS is central to all this,” explains Harry Barmentloo, of ILIAS Solutions. “It’s like a big blender bringing all the different variables together, being IT systems, databases, all kinds of technical instructions, parts and planning cards. The big challenge is to organize it all and be in control of the full mod program. To do that you need to orchestrate all the different elements.”
The planning started in 2019. That included organizing the kick off with the project team consisting of Lockheed Martin (the project leaders), ILIAS Solutions and the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI). It also means preparing to handle a huge amount of data; much of it being Hellenic Air Force operational data. That requires powerful and secure tools.
“We use a secured cloud environment, where according to the Lockheed security policies, we can hold the development, testing, and production activities, and keep track of the progress of the mod execution,” says Barmentloo. “We also keep track of the different shipments coming in from both the commercial supply chain, and through Foreign Military Sales.”
Patrick Conlan is the Lockheed Martin Depot Operations Manager for the Greece Viper Upgrade Program. He says they decided to use ILIAS as their management tool because the scope of the project was too big for any internal system.
“We deliver large kits with huge builds and materials, but mapping each one of those material requirements to a specific production need date, is something that has eluded us in the past,” he says. “We are dealing with both serialized and non-serialized items being delivered. We also have to track multiple items that are coming and going from Hellenic Air Force for the engine, the seat, the canopy, and the gun. All that needs to be managed and controlled.”
“And of course, what this all leads to is the ability to measure our cost and schedule performance; what we refer to as earned value management, or EVM. And through all this, we hope to capture management visibility and transparency, because as opposed to siloed reports and siloed systems, all of the information is flowing out of one system. We all get to speak with one truth.”
The project has served as a proving ground for ILIAS’s latest product: ILIAS Guide.
“What ILIAS Guide is doing for us is it turns each technician into a sensor,” says Conlan. “Each technician can measure the hours worked, start, stop times, also raise findings from their work and link that work to the planning card that they were working through. The intention is to better document the work and to demonstrate planned versus actual work.
Turning ‘technicians into sensors’ requires equipping them with tablets so they can capture data in real time. Knowing exactly how long each step of the process takes, and how many people it requires is crucial for planning future upgrades.
“By implementing the ILIAS software in Greece we have also standardized our organisation. The naming of locations, Mod docks, Warehouses, Repair centers have all been streamlined and formalized ” Conlan explains. “Having all of this information in one system has helped us to formalize that and convey that more effectively to our end users. It gives us a standardization of aircraft standardization data and a full spectrum of documentation.”
