Optimally Scheduling EA-6B Depot Maintenance and Aircraft Modification Kit Procurement

The Department of the Navy maintains a fleet of 124 EA-6B aircraft, the only tactical electronic warfare aircraft in the Department of Defense inventory. Already 30 years old and not to be retired until 2015, the EA-6B requires depot maintenance services to remain combat ready. EA-6B aircraft undergo standard depot level maintenance (SDLM) about every eight years. In addition to SDLM, depots must complete 72 wing center section replacement services and over 175 major aircraft modification services by 2010. Navy regulations govern when each EA-6B is eligible for each service; these rules are flexible enough to allow more induction schedules than can be evaluated manually in a reasonable amount of time. Because each service keeps an aircraft at the depot for six to 14 months and performing multiple services together requires less time than performing services independently, services should be combined whenever possible. This thesis introduces DMAAP (Depot Maintenance And Acquisition Planner); a prototypic optimization based decision support tool to assist in scheduling EA-6B depot level maintenance services and major aircraft modification kit acquisition. DMAAP produces a Master Plan (induction schedule) providing a monthly schedule for the first six years, a yearly schedule out to 2013 and yearly major aircraft modification kit acquisition levels out to 2010. We compare DMAAP Master Plans obtained using alternate depot induction policies to demonstrate DMAAP's ability and show how yearly depot workloads and yearly operational aircraft vary under alternate policies.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Optimally Scheduling EA-6B Depot Maintenance and Aircraft Modification Kit Procurement', published 2000 under ISBN 9781423551232 and ISBN 1423551230.