ALIS Is Dying; Long Live F-35’s ODIN

WASHINGTON: The F-35 program began taking a major step the last two weeks toward removing an enormous albatross from around its neck by replacing the much-maligned ALIS logistics system with its sleeker, faster and younger replacement, ODIN.

The move to install ODIN on two of 14 deployments brings the logistics and planning system to units in all three services that are buying the plane.

An official DoD story noted the installation of the new hardware called the ODIN Base Kit (OBK) on July 16 for Strike Fighter Squadron 125 at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., and Aug. 6 for the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The remaining 12 deployments should be finished in 2022.

Between April and May, Pax River testers evaluated the most recent software release for the F-35, designed for the original ALIS Standard Operating Units (SOUs) and the OBK. The OBK is 30% cheaper, 75% smaller and 90% lighter than the ALIS SOU, according to the Joint Program Office.

“The new capability worked very well,” the F-35 Patuxent River ITF ALIS/ODIN ST&E team lead, Dave Madera, told Patuxent River’s Navy authorized paper, The Tester. The software worked noticeably faster on both systems, but was especially effective on the OBK.

The new ODIN system (which, like the F-35 itself, was designed by Lockheed Martin) comes in two suitcase-sized cases weighing 100 pounds, replacing a big electronics box that weighed around 800 pounds. Its increased computing power cuts processing times by as much as 50%.

Richard Aboulafia, a top aircraft expert at the Teal Group, was willing to give the new setups the benefit of the doubt: “Given advances in software and other computing technologies, there’s no way this can’t be significantly better. But on the other hand, some of the concerns about the previous system related to operational sovereignty, which probably won’t be addressed by this new system.”

Setting up the original ALIS was well known to be difficult and time-consuming. The official story described the new system’s installation this way: “At each site, the hardware installation and set-up were complete and systems ready for operation in a matter of days, demonstrating the suitability and ease of use for administrators of this new hardware.”

ALIS and ODIN are designed to let pilots and maintenance crews plan, maintain and sustain a plane. Its predictive maintenance functions have been hailed for presuming to lead, over the long term, to lower sustainment costs and higher readiness rates.

While ALIS was supposed to make maintenance faster and simpler and more predictable, maintainers have constantly found it difficult to use and, often, just plain ineffective. And it was very expensive.

ODIN is a cloud-based system designed so software engineers can write updates quickly to cope with changing conditions

ALIS is beginning to be replaced, but it may be too early to play taps for it. The story in The Tester quotes F-35 PEO, Lt. Gen. Eric Fick to the effect that pilots and maintainers are finding the upgraded ALIS more useful: “We’re relooking at how we’re going to deliver (ODIN) … informed by dialogue from the users who say, ‘Look, we actually like what we’re starting to see in ALIS a little bit more, so don’t mess it up as you transition it to ODIN.’ So, we’re making sure we’re very deliberate as we move forward.”

As they move forward, the DoD story says that Lockheed and the JPO are may add capabilities so the systems can “host multiple operating squadrons on a single server.” One of the more interesting questions is whether that would allow US and foreign F-35 partners to be managed from single ODIN set-ups.

While the classified portions of each nation’s design are, well, classified, it’s long been suspected that US and UK aircraft possess capabilities other nations may not boast. And allowing other countries to see your aircraft’s planning, mission and maintenance data may be a bridge too far, even for staunch allies.

Perhaps to that end, efforts are underway, the story says, to design “similarly improved hardware for other classified functions.”