In 2002, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) procured a number of APG-73 radars to replace existing radars being used on the FA/18A Hornet platform. The radars were purchased from Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) based in California, USA.

Once the radars were delivered in-country, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) faced the challenge of determining the best way to test and sustain the assets.

The RAAF lused a US Navy testing station in Australia as the initial point of testing for all APG-73 radars. Radars that were deemed unserviceable after local RAAF testing were sent overseas to the OEM for further secondary testing and repair if needed. After a number of years of following this process, the RAAF and OEM found that 60 per cent of assets sent back to the OEM were categorised as “nil fault found”.

It was clear that this process for testing and repair was inefficient, inaccurate and costly. The RAAF determined that the major cause of this faulty process was the missing link between the Australian testing station and the OEM’s radar system database. This was a result of the RAAF’s lack of access to the OEM’s intellectual property. Having inaccurate data meant that the assets could not be properly tracked.

As a result, the ADF went to tender to find an Australian defence contractor to provide local sustainment services for the APG-73 radar system.

Raytheon Australia was awarded the contract to deliver this capability to the ADF, with the project commencing in 2007 after two years of contract negotiations. As part of the contract, Raytheon Australia would deliver deeper maintenance, spares, logistics, engineering, configuration management and obsolescence management for the radar system.

One vital aspect of this project was Raytheon Australia’s ability to access intellectual property from Raytheon’s Space & Airborne Systems business unit in order to procure their radar test bench to be used in-country. The procurement of this test bench was central to Raytheon Australia’s solution. This meant that the company’s local team had access to accurate and timely data – critical to the efficient sustainment of the radars.

APG-73: Going local for smarter solutions

With this testing equipment and data, the Raytheon Australia team worked with the RAAF to create a focused production plan to proactively manage repairs and find further efficiencies for the program.

Raytheon’s global and local teams worked together to deliver smart sustainment for APG-73.

Image courtesy of the Department of Defence.

In particular, one avenue for increased efficiencies was to invest in the company’s in-country skillset in maintenance to reduce the amount of items that needed to be sent back to the OEM for repair. This investment in people development was critical to Raytheon Australia’s smart sustainment solutions – and resulted in the local team being able to repair 60 per cent of items in-country.

The team also investigated various avenues for creating greater efficiencies – this included increasing the stock of back-up inventory in-country. By maintaining the right stock level of serviceable items at the right quantity, the team was able to efficiently manage the assets. Because of this streamlined process, Raytheon Australia has the ability to sustain 77 systems, with 75 total systems available at any given time. This is a vast improvement, and is due to the shorter turn-around times that an in-country team can provide.

APG-73: Continued

Another innovative solution delivered by the team was an improved process for RAAF technicians to service their aircraft in order to increase the “time on wing” of the APG-73 radar system. Because the aircraft are typically at a high heat when they land to be serviced, the radar systems overheat whilst on the ground – with 25 per cent of assets becoming damaged from this process. Raytheon Australia’s team recommended that the radars be turned off when the aircraft are being serviced – to avoid causing the radars to overheat, rather than waiting to repair them after they become overheated.

Following on from this, Raytheon Australia and the RAAF have started collaborative workshop sessions to develop new ways to continue increasing the availability and capability of the APG-73 radars whilst also reducing the life cycle costs of the entire system.