2011 Program Excellence Award Nomination System Level Sustainment Customs and Border Protection P-3 Fleet Maintenance Program Narrative: Site and depot Maintenance for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) P-3 aircraft is contracted to Lockheed Martin, as well as production of life extension kits, including new wings, and installation of the kits. CBP P-3 facilities in Corpus Christi, Texas CBP P-3 AEW with new wings installed CBP P-3 Mission CBP Office of Air and Marine manage and staff flight crews and operations for a fleet of 16 P-3 aircraft. The aircraft are flown domestically and internationally in support of drug interdiction and homeland security events. Although CBP has now operated P-3 s over 25 years, the aircraft were not received new, as they were former US Navy and RAAF Anti Submarine Warfare aircraft. Lockheed Martin modified the aircraft to CBP s requirements in a series of contracts through the 1980 s through early 2000 s. Aviation Week published a Michael Dornheim article in 1988 on Lockheed Martin development of the P-3 AEW aircraft for CBP (then US Customs Service). The revitalization of the P-3 and extended use of it by CBP has since proven to be very cost effective use of these government owned assets.
CBP operate the 16 P-3 aircraft out of two permanent sites, Corpus Christi, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida. They also operate from foreign detachment sites in Central, South American, and Caribbean countries that support the US in drug interdiction. They have a 25 year history of successful P-3 operations, interdicting tons of drugs and supporting numerous homeland security events. With comprehensive depot maintenance and life extension installation they expect to operate their P-3 aircraft another 20 years. The range, time on station, sensor and crew payload capability, and the flexibility of the P-3 are so exceptional its mission capability is not easily replaced. CBP received their first P-3 s in the mid 1980 s. The P-3 aircraft are in two major configurations Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and Long Range Tracker (LRT). The P-3 AEW aircraft are easily identifiable by the large 24 ft diameter radar antenna rotodome mounted on top of the fuselage and are used for wide area surveillance. The P-3 LRT aircraft are used for long range tracking, intercept, and identification. CBP P-3 AEW & LRT Aircraft in Operation Lockheed Martin Contribution Lockheed Martin performs site maintenance at the two CBP P-3 facilities and at detachment locations, and also depot maintenance and life extension installation at aircraft maintenance facilities in Greenville SC. In late July of 2009 LM was awarded an annually renewable (10) year contract from Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Air and Marine for site and depot maintenance for their fleet of (16) P-3 aircraft. Full performance of the contract started October 1 st 2009. LM has set out to support aircraft that we have produced, for as long as those aircraft can successfully support the customer s missions LM has a long successful history of development and support for CBP P-3 s. This contract has performance incentives for LM
Lockheed Martin performed a contract transition from an incumbent maintenance contractor during July and August 2009, and picked up on full operations October 1 st. This included hiring 100 incumbent employees from the prior holder of the contract and adding 50 additional employees. Lockheed Martin is successfully performing on the contract launching and recovering P-3 mission aircraft, supporting foreign detachments, providing logistics supply support, and performing scheduled and unscheduled organizational level and depot level maintenance. We are exceeding our performance goals on our Operational Performance Measurement. Several challenges encompass the effort. CBP P-3 aircraft are all over 40 years old, but include many contemporary sensor and communication capabilities. All CBP P-3 aircraft are undergoing, or are scheduled to undergo, comprehensive life extension. Due to fatigue life issues, CBP has experienced tremendous P-3 aircraft availability issues over prior years. They have recently recovered, and have a practical schedule going forward to life extend their aircraft on a manageable schedule. CBP plans to operate the P-3 aircraft for another 20 years, while a successor platform is identified and developed, either natively by CBP or through another US agency. As the aircraft are over 40 years old the P-3 supply chain is experiencing Diminishing Manufacturing Sources (DMS). CBP has access to both DoD and Commercial supply chain support, and both are utilized extensively by Lockheed Martin to manage DMS issues for CBP. Lockheed Martin has worked extensively with the CBP customer on identifying candidate systems for replacement to stay ahead of the problem. Ongoing supply chain support of course is necessary for CBP to meet their missions. Lockheed Martin P-3 Wing Production Line Lockheed Martin has stood up a manufacturing line for P-3 wings in Marietta GA. CBP has orders for 11 shipsets, plus options for the remainder of their fleet. Lockheed Martin installs the wings and other components of the P-3 life extension kit in an MRO facility in Greenville SC.
Lockheed Martin retains engineering expertise for maintenance and modification support and configuration support on the CBP P-3 program. Several other P-3 operators have undergone fatigue life assessments and some have resulted in P-3 life extension programs. We have performed extensive modeling and testing of the P-3 wing and have an excellent methodology for analyzing fatigue life and helping manage remaining aircraft life for our P-3 operators, including CBP. Lockheed Martin has sophisticated integration and development labs configured and staffed to support CBP P-3 aircraft in its Aeronautics facility in Marietta GA. CBP P-3 include very capable sensors and communications capability and expertise is required to maintain the edge that CBP has for the evolving drug interdiction and homeland security missions. Program Manager Biography: Program Manager, P-3/S-3 Programs Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company John Norris is Program Manager, CBP P-3 aircraft for P-3/S-3 Programs Mr. Norris began his career in 1985 with Lockheed Martin as a Software Engineer for the P-3 program in Burbank California. In his tenure, he held numerous engineering positions during the development of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) P-3 program. In the late 1990 s, he was the primary architect for the CBP P-3 mission system. He is currently the Program Manager for all CBP P-3 contracts. In 1987, Mr. Norris joined the CBP P-3 program as a software engineer when Lockheed Martin developed the first P-3 AEW aircraft for CBP. He later successfully led CBP P-3 modifications, aircraft retrofit proposals, maintenance proposals and delivered aircraft and supported CBP throughout Lockheed Martin s record of performance with CBP. More recent efforts resulted in the award of several significant P-3 contracts, and successful execution of performance under those efforts. These efforts include a $200 million P-3 Re-wing kit contract, and an $800 million P-3 maintenance contract with options for 10 years of recurring effort. The CBP P-3 aircraft all exceed 40 years old and present challenges in keeping the surveillance systems effective with the changing mission, keeping the structure viable for safe flight, and keeping the systems supported for reliable operations. Mr. Norris has supported CBP in all aspects of these challenges.
Mr. Norris earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree from California State University Northridge in 1984. Customer: Dr. William Byrd, Department of Homeland Security.