Explaining Aircraft Assignment

The required system type of the aircraft (for example, Fighter) and the required Operational Configuration (for example, Air Attack) are typically known when the flight requirement is created. However, the nomination of the aircraft to perform the flight also uses technical considerations (remaining flight hours, effort to reconfigure) and is therefore performed in a later stage (by Technical Operations working in SAP).

There can be several criteria for selecting one aircraft over the other for a flight.

Examples for such selection criteria are as follows:

• Type of mission / flight
• Technical / Operational Status
• Required (authorized) setup configuration
• Remaining flight hours to next inspection (controlled usage rate)

As maintenance resources - such as work stations, machines, or personnel - are limited, it is necessary to distribute the necessary periodic maintenance tasks evenly over a year for all of the aircraft within a maintenance cycle. The use of aircraft must be monitored to ensure that too many maintenance tasks are not due at the same time. This operation is known as controlled usage rate.

The configuration describes the technical structure, the loading state, and the equipment of a technical object (for example, a weapon system).

In aircraft, this applies to the following:

• Installed and additional parts
• Additional equipment
• Weapons
• Ammunition
• Refueling

You map the actual configuration to describe the current configuration of a technical object.

You map the authorized configuration to define what the configuration of a technical object should be for a particular flight. A comparison between the actual and authorized configuration in the flight enables you to trigger processes for equipping or changing the technical object.

The application, Enter PM Order Confirmation, was enhanced to match defense-specific requirements. With this enhancement, the user has direct access to the following:

• Technical Status
• Actual setup configuration