Lockheed Solidifying Fighter's Information SystemsLockheed Solidifying Fighter's Information Systems

When a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics won the $200 billion contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter for the United States and Britain in October, a major contract stipulation was that the Lockheed team would take charge of maintenance and repair of the jet globally and develop information systems that would manage maintenance and repair records for each jet in real time.

Those systems are starting to shape up. Lockheed and its partner on the JSF project, British jet engine manufacturer BAE Systems, recently selected two software vendors to provide systems to keep track of the condition of each jet fighter and its maintenance records, and to automate a supply chain involving hundreds of thousands of replacement parts around the world.

Specialty logistics software vendor Xelus Inc. will provide the software to manage the movement of repair and replacement parts for the jet when it takes to the air in 2005. Maintenance and repair management software jointly developed by BAE and enterprise resource planning software vendor IFS Systems has been selected to interface with electronic status monitoring systems onboard each aircraft to provide diagnostic and maintenance information that will help keep it operating at peak efficiency.

AMR Research analyst Michael Burkett says such systems are critical to the Lockheed team because this is the first defense project where contractors are responsible not only for manufacturing the jet, but also for maintenance in peace time and in war. The software developed jointly by IFS and BAE Systems was designed for the task it is to perform. Bill Burgess, BAE Systems strategy and capability development manager, says the team turned to Xelus because its software manages the service and repair parts supply chain, a niche where most supply-chain management software vendors don't compete.