The Role of Technology to Enable an Air Force Ready for Great Power Competition

By Michael Ehrlich, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

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“Indispensable to our Nation, disruptive to our adversaries.”

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This vision from Air Force Materiel Command’s (AFMC) strategy, captures perfectly the importance of a strong and ready Air Force. The emphasis on readiness demands timely and efficient maintenance of the critical capabilities needed by the warfighter – and is a cornerstone of U.S. national security. As the demands on the Air Force continue to grow globally, and the focus sharpens on the Great Power Competition, the stakes for the Air Force have never been higher.

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Developing and maintaining a force that is as large and complex as the United States Air Force is exceedingly difficult, and the stress placed on Air Force Sustainment Centers will only continue to increase. These sustainment centers face several daunting challenges in managing maintenance timelines, including labor shortages, high operational demand, training needs and inventory and supply chain challenges.

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These challenges and, in some cases, opportunities have not gone unnoticed by Air Force leadership. Over the last decade the Air Force has made significant investments in driving improvements in its supply chain processes, enhancing workforce management, improving training programs and optimizing other critical operational functions. These investments have required not only a re-thinking of how to organize the force and execute the mission but also a re-evaluation of how technical innovation can help to continue the push forward. The investments directly support the four main lines of effort outlined by AFMC – Delivering Integrated Capabilities, Strengthening Their Team, Revolutionizing Their Processes and Amplifying Warfighting Culture.

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For FTI, our innovation investments and focus areas remain perfectly aligned with the Air Force’s strategy and, more specifically, with AFMC. Our team of subject matter experts, with decades of service in the Air Force, coupled with our team of engineers, developers and data scientists are developing and delivering solutions to help the Air Force achieve its objectives today.

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One recently released product, AMARA: Asset Maintenance, Availability and Risk Analytics, is a key addition to our portfolio that highlights our commitment to innovation and our alignment to enabling an Air Force that is ready to face the challenges of the Great Power Competition.

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AMARA is purpose-built to compliment and augment the existing systems and processes currently employed by the Air Force, and can help improve operations, deliver increased visibility, deliver advanced and predictive analysis, and provide highly interactive and real time visualizations of key data which are driving critical decisions on maintenance activities.

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Below is a summary of FTI’s AMARA, highlighting why we built it and the value it can deliver, day one.

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FTI AMARA: A Strategic Solution for Managing Critical Air Force Asset Maintenance and Availability

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FTI AMARA is a comprehensive, cloud-based software platform that addresses and anticipates maintenance, modernization, and sustainment needs. AMARA offers insights and fosters a proactive maintenance environment by integrating robust data integration, analysis, and predictive insights.

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AMARA is designed to help tackle some of the biggest challenges faced by the Air Force related to improving squadron readiness and availability. Here's how AMARA can provide opportunities for significant modernization and transformation:

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Identifies foundational constraints

AMARA can help establish standardization across the maintenance enterprise (from sustainment centers to the command) creating a baseline of data maturity required to accelerate performance improvements.

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Enables data to drive decisions

AMARA provides leaders with not only access to data, but access to the right data that they can trust. By normalizing and pre-processing data, AMARA can help rapidly improve data quality and remove variability in fidelity across all sources.

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Reduces time from problem identification to resolution

AMARA provides near-real time access to not only the locally captured data, but to data residing in connected systems as well. This provides a window into challenges early and at a higher fidelity, enabling corrective action to be taken faster and more effectively.

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Workforce empowerment

Given the persistent issue of workforce shortages and the heavy reliance on overtime, AMARA offers a strategic advantage. Its intuitive interface and predictive capabilities enable planning and forecasting that enhance workforce allocation.

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Operational efficiency

Another critical challenge is high operational tempo for essential Air Force assets. AMARA’s predictive analytics become invaluable here, allowing maintenance teams to anticipate problems before they lead to operational disruptions. This proactive approach ensures that maintenance schedules are less likely to be interrupted by unforeseen issues, thus maintaining the desired operational tempo.

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Supply chain optimization

Addressing parts and materials shortages, AMARA includes a sophisticated logistic and inventory module that can help predict supply chain challenges based on historical and real-time data. This capability can help and augment existing systems and processes to control excess inventory costs and schedule delays.

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Predictive analytics

FTI AMARA provides a predictive analytic framework and an interactive space to do 'what if' analysis, help establish standardization across depots and sustainment centers, provides a platform to aggregate all existing planning data, and gives leaders confidence in the data they're reviewing.

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The FTI AMARA Difference

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- Rapidly deployable, and often begins delivering value within weeks or months versus years.

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- A fraction of the cost of large company solutions or traditional enterprise software implementations.

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- Non-disruptive to current technology environments, and works with virtually all systems, applications, and data types.

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- Serves a wide range of users, from those with basic skills to highly technical professionals.

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- Never restricts access to data or analytic outputs – our customers data is always their data.

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FTI AMARA is Now Available via SaaS and Perpetual Licensing

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Delivery via SaaS

‍FTI AMARA is now available via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Subscription pricing allows fast and predictable adaptation to changing customer demands, ensuring new capabilities, data ingestion and integration requirements, and scalability can be delivered as fast as they are needed. Additionally, AMARA’s throughput-based approach is designed to meet a wide range of needs, from maintaining current systems to deploying enterprise-scale solutions across multiple Program Executive Offices (PEOs), industry partner systems or large-scale squadron operations. AMARA is highly flexible, enabling tailored support for a range of requirements, from straightforward updates to complex, cloud-based installations for extensive user communities. The demand signal from the customer defines the volume of data and how quickly it must be ingested.

‍Perpetual Licensing

FTI’s new perpetual licensing model for on-premises (on-prem) implementation is designed for new and existing customers seeking both affordability and predictability. This option also provides an opportunity to secure continuous support, regular capability enhancements, critical security updates, and the latest ATO and environmental certifications, keeping customer operations not just running, but running securely. Designed and built with flexibility at the forefront, our licensing model ensures customers can leverage the full power of FTI AMARA at an affordable price point. Customers can choose to license FTI AMARA independently or in combination with our expert technical services, ensuring seamless integration and maintenance across various environments.

Schedule a demonstration or request more information: Product@FTIdefense.com

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FTI’s Air Force Operations Team

FTI has a proven track record of successful programs with the Air Force. Our services and solutions include acquisition and systems support, logistics analysis, and cutting-edge wargaming, a cornerstone of the Air Force Materiel Command's operations and a direct asset to the F-35 Joint Program Office. FTI remains focused and dedicated to upholding and advancing the superiority of the United States Air Force. Our current contracts help exemplify our expertise and dedication to the Air Force mission. Our contract around the Light Attack Aircraft provides maintenance, affordability, and readiness assessments to provide product support BCA for the Light Attack Aircraft & Armed Overwatch Program Office. With PACOM, EUCOM, and AFMC, FTI provides logistics planning exercises for PACOM and EUCOM using FTI's Integrated Sustainment Wargaming & Analysis Toolkit (ISWAT), a "logistics ground truth" solution. Additionally, through our contract with PEO Bomber, FTI provides customized life cycle end-to-end logistic and analysis support, maximizing cost and time savings for the PEO Bomber Program Office.

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About FTI

FTI provides deep data expertise, technology, and services that enhance the ability of the DoD, Intelligence Community, and other agencies of the Federal Government to make the best decisions possible. Drawing on nearly four decades of innovation, FTI's extensive portfolio of intellectual property and operational technologies has been augmented by more than $200 million of U.S. government and FTI R&D investment, and solutions can often be mission-ready in a matter of weeks at a fraction of the cost of alternatives. Headquartered in Beavercreek, Ohio, FTI operates in 34 states, works at all classification levels, and offers seven facilities of varying clearance levels nationwide.

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Related reading

How AMARA can help the Navy with Operational Challenges: Overcoming Operational Challenges - Transforming Maintenance with Data Driven Solutions

AMARA now available as SaaS or Perpetual Licensing: FTI Announces SaaS and Licensed Versions of FTI AMARA