Ferryable Integrated Ground Support Unit -Reliable Auxiliary Power for Fighter Aircraft Maintenance

As the 21st Century approaches, attitudes, thought processes, and planning related to combat support technology must change. Reliability and maintainability of an aircraft must be given much more consideration in aircraft design; items such as maintenance turn around time, and the amount of flightline support equipment required at the airbase to maintain the aircraft must be reduced. Therefore, designers must seek to eliminate as much required combat support equipment as possible through innovative air vehicle design.

This paper focuses on the fighter aircraft supportability problems and the application of a auxiliary ground equipment pod to solve these problems. Subtopics include the supportability problem for today's fighter aircraft, the anticipated future combat environment, and the combat maintenance support requirements, based on aircraft mission duty cycles.