Description & Purpose
The C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership (GSP) is a public / private agreement designed around the concept of performance-based logistics where the customer pays for readiness, not specific parts or services. Under the agreement, Boeing is responsible for all C-17 sustainment activities, including material management and depot maintenance support. The partnership capitalizes on Boeing's expertise, with Air Force depots, to ensure readiness levels that meet the Warfighter's needs.
Customer
The U.S. Air Force has partnered with Boeing on sustainment for the C-17 since 1998. International customers also use GSP for support to include The United Kingdom Royal Air Force, The Royal Australian Air Force, Canadian Forces, The Qatari Emiri Air Force and the NATO Consortium (Strategic Airlift Capability). The current GSP agreement is a three-year contract, FY2009 -- FY2011. Boeing was notified that the USAF has approved a ten-year Justification and Approval (J&A) request for Boeing to provide continued, sole-source lifecycle support to the C-17 from FY2012 through 2021.
A first-of-its-kind experiment in multinational airlift began in July 2009 with the formal commissioning of the NATO-managed Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) and the unit's first Boeing C-17 at Papa Air Base in Western Hungary. A Boeing team provides total support for the three SAC C-17s, including flight line maintenance, material management and depot maintenance support, a first for Boeing GSP, providing total support for a customer's entire fleet.
General Characteristics
The GSP program has become a model for the future of sustainment. Boeing is held accountable to achieve sustainment performance metrics and is paid accordingly. Boeing has supply support management for more than 95 percent of the reparable parts on the C-17. The contract requirement of 82 percent parts Issue Effectiveness (delivery rate) is continuously exceeded. For the period of FY2004 to FY2010, GSP supply chain management achieved an average of 91 percent delivery rate for these assigned reparable items.
Boeing is responsible for supply support, supplier management, technical manual support, maintenance, modifications and upgrades, logistics engineering services and field support services. Boeing personnel come into contact with the aircraft every day in the field, working alongside Air Force personnel to keep the C-17 fleet flying with the best availability in airlift history.
Background
In FY2010 the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) flew 62,463 sorties, consisting of 232,197 flight hours while maintaining a 90.9 percent worldwide logistics departure reliability rate. On December 10th, 2010 the program celebrated the C-17's two-millionth flight hour when a Charleston-based C-17 crew made a delivery of 70,000 pounds of fuel to a remote corner of Afghanistan.
In a partnership with the U.S. Air Force, GSP has reduced C-17 Dollar per Flight Hour by 28 percent over six years (2004 to 2009). On-site Boeing engineering operational cost avoidance was estimated at $54M from FY2004 through FY2009. In FY2010 this was estimated at $5.8M. The C-17 GSP Program achieved a mission capability rate of 84.6 percent in FY2010, mission capable rate FY2011 to-date is 86.4 percent.