Splunk and Alis

[spazsinbad]

Lockheed’s F-35 Alis Update
20 May 2016 DefenseNews VIDEO

"Lorraine Martin, Deputy Executive Vice President, Mission Systems Training, Lockheed Martin gives an update on the F-35 and the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS)."

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/videos/defen ... /84663986/

[spazsinbad]

Text from video interview above.

Interview: Lorraine Martin, Deputy Executive Vice President, Mission Systems and Training, Lockheed Martin
22 May 2016 Jill Aitoro

"...Q. I do want to talk a bit about the F-35. The Air Force is preparing to declare the F-35A operational. But the biggest risk in terms of deadlines is relating to the ALIS system [Autonomic Logistics Information System] which could delay things up to 60 days. Can you talk to me a little bit about where that stands?

A. The ALIS system is basically the backbone of the management system for all of the F-35 operations. Today any F-35 flight, and there are probably anywhere from 60 to 80 in the US across the bases every day, is managed, fielded and flown using the ALIS system. The ALIS system was always planned to be deployed incrementally, maturing over time, and that’s what we’re seeing here today. We are working on the next version of the ALIS capability, it’s called 2.0.2, and it is the version that is next to be released. The Air Force has said that an ALIS capability of a certain maturity is what they’ll need for their operational capability, much like the Marine Corps did prior, and we’re working to make sure that we deliver between the August to December timeframe, which is the window that they’ve given for IOC declaration, the capability they need. We’re laser-focused on that; we’re committed to making that happen.

Q. Maintainers and technicians do love the system — we actually had one of our reporters go and visit and speak to them about it. But this of course brings up questions relating to cybersecurity — keeping the data secure in that system. Can you update us on that challenge?

A. Any information system that’s carrying sensitive information for the US or our allies needs to be protected and ALIS is no different. The ALIS system has been through significant amounts of testing and certification using just about every government agency in the US that we could tap, ourselves in the joint program office, to make sure that we could come in and verify and certify that the system is safe for every environment it operates. And in fact we’ve had over 2,000 security tests on it over its life and just last year 300 alone. So we’ve taken this very seriously. We need to ensure that wherever it performs, in that environment, it is going to be safe and make sure that they’ll be no vulnerabilities. In addition to that we have an infrastructure in place that enables the actual ALIS system to perform and we need to continue to make it more robust, have backup plans, ensure that it can be maintained and reliable literally anywhere on the planet. It’s going well, the troops have deployed several times and been able to operate ALIS wherever they were, but we’ll keep on it."

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /84648324/

[spazsinbad]

A tired Marine - mustabin carrying ALIS?

[popcorn]

http://www.todayonline.com/business/eng ... mber-pratt

Engine data to be added to F-35 logistics system in November: Pratt

RAF FAIRFORD, England - Data about Pratt & Whitney's F135 engine will be integrated into the computerized logistics system used to service the Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N> F-35 fighter jet by November, the president of Pratt's military engines business said on Friday.

Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp <UTX.N>, has been providing data about the engine to Lockheed software engineers, and is standing by to test the new software, Bennett Croswell, who heads the Pratt unit, told Reuters in an interview.


more...

[spazsinbad]

ALIS Arrives In The UK
13 Jul 2016 Angus Batey

"...“Because the deployment is on a short-term basis, the jets are being connected back up through a secure connection to standard operating units [SOUs] in the U.S.,” says David Scott, Lockheed Martin Training and Logistic Solutions’ vice president of business development and strategy. “The SOU is a rack of computer servers which sit at each squadron; they connect into a CPE – a central point of entry – for each country. The CPE in turn connects back to the autonomic logistics operating unit [ALOU], which is in Texas currently, and that’s the repository for the information that is uploaded from each of the SOUs, and ultimately from the jets.”

The promised gains from ALIS are predicated on this construct. Aircraft data flows up the chain, from the squadron to the nation and into Lockheed’s ALOU, where company staff can monitor the global fleet down to the component level. But the plan will only work if users are happy to share what may be quite sensitive information.

“Information uploaded from the countries through their system is contained and controlled by the country,” Scott says. “Each country then makes an individual decision about what information they want to upload or share to the ALOU, which looks at fleet health. We can look at who needs spares, what the predictive models are, and we perform failure-trend analysis across the fleet – not just one country’s fleet. So there’s a benefit to sharing data, but each country makes that decision on their own.”

Scott notes that as no user outside the U.S. currently has an F-35 based in its own territory, no nation has as yet reached a decision on what level of sharing it will allow. Data shared do not include mission-specific information except where that has a bearing on platform health – aggregated data about “how the airplane is flown aerodynamically” is collected by ALIS, he says, “so we can determine if it is at or is exceeding its design criteria,” but operational military data will “never go back” to Lockheed.

The system is likely to require significant bandwidth. Speaking at RIAT, the USAF’s Gen. Herbert Carlisle acknowledged that this was a concern, but stressed that it was not expected to be a problem.

“Right now, we’ve been able to operate [ALIS] just about everywhere we’ve gone,” he said. “In a very austere environment? We’ll figure it out. Is it perfect? No. Has it got work to do? Yeah. But we can do it. There’s some work-arounds to do it. But right now, we’ve been able to operate just about everywhere we’ve gotten.”

Those work-arounds for bandwidth-constrained environments include an ability to not have to synchronize data back from the SOUs to the ALOU more often than approximately every 30 days. The limiting factor is data storage.

“It depends on the number of flights and operational tempo,” Scott says. “The idea is that 30 days will be sufficient for you to conduct deployed operations before you have to connect back up.” Continued use beyond 30 days would be possible, but data collected earlier in the deployment would be lost.

The next iteration of ALIS software – 2.0.2 – is running between 60 and 90 days late for release. Also speaking at RIAT, Lockheed’s F-35 program manager, Jeff Babione, explained the holdups had involved integrating ALIS with commercial SAP systems used in the purchasing phase of operation, and with one of 2.0.2’s four main advances – the integration of what is thus far a stand-alone system for monitoring the F-35’s engine.

“Getting SAP integrated with all our sub-tiers and also with Pratt & Whitney was probably a little bit more complex than we appreciated,” he said. “So we’ve had to take time and ensure the architecture was appropriate before we could begin the testing. What we’re seeing now is that taking that time was important. The testing we’re doing is showing that we’ve got it all linked up right, and now we’ve just got to make sure the communication is correct and all the ordering functions are working.”"

Source: http://aviationweek.com/shownews/alis-arrives-uk

[spazsinbad]

ALIS and Country Data Sharing is the new big stick to beat up the F-35 enterprise - I'm glad BS is not around to be blowing FOO FOO powder around about it. The different countries will sort it out along with all the other bits & pieces it seems.

Next Challenges For F-35: Logistics And Data-Sharing [LONG ARTICLE VERY MUCH NEEDED TO BE READ AT URL]
15 Jul 2016 Lara Seligman

"...Now it is up to the policy makers to tackle the thorny logistics of operating a fifth-generation fighter program across 12 different nations, each with unique infrastructure and security requirements....

...F-35 Highlights

» F-35 Joint Program Office blueprint for maintenance in Europe and Asia-Pacific is still evolving

» Some foreign militaries are concerned about potential Lockheed Martin/U.S. government view into sovereign information through ALIS

» Lockheed is performing cyberanalysis and sifting through policy regulations to develop information-sharing plans that fit needs of each customer...

...The more information a fleet can provide Lockheed through ALIS, the easier it is to help the customer work through failures and reliability challenges, Scott says.

“The broader the pool of information, the more thorough and robust the analysis is,” he says. “But we believe the benefits of providing some level of detail will be obvious to most users and they will take advantage.”

The crucial next step for the JSF is figuring out how to synchronize both logistics and threat data across the coalition to make better, faster tactical decisions, says Goldfein.

“That’s the fundamental question of the future: How do we work our way into a common operating system?” Goldfein says. “So that information-sharing data analysis and being able to rapidly decide and act on that information becomes the foundation of our asymmetric advantage.”

Source: http://aviationweek.com/defense/next-ch ... ta-sharing