Mission Support has multiple definitions,
from the traditional — providing
support to products built by
your company — to the larger scale of providing
support to other companies' products.
At Raytheon, Mission Support is more
than product support. Raytheon enables its
customers' mission success by partnering
with them to predict needs, sense potential
problems, and proactively respond with
integrated solutions, delivering technology
and support that enable them to complete
their objectives with absolute confidence.
Raytheon's Mission Support vision is to ensure
mission success for our customers by
using Raytheon-government partnerships
for a full range of Mission Support activities:
Providing precise information about location,
configuration and condition of each
Raytheon system to warfighters and
combat support providers at all levels
Sensing increased demands and responding
seamlessly with accelerated delivery of
new production, or with reduced repair
turnaround cycles for systems in service
Monitoring and analyzing performance
data throughout the networked process and producing tailored support packages
designed to deliver continuous improvement
Adapting and innovating effective
support solutions that reduce total cost
of ownership
Beyond Product Support
Traditional Mission Support activities at
Raytheon include maintenance and repair of
customer-owned assets, including inventory
and test equipment, as well as logistics services
that include training; supply support,
including spares and repair parts; technical
data; and field service support. Additional
services include configuration and management,
as well as reliability, maintainability,
system safety and supportability. Other
types of traditional Mission Support
work include:
In-service engineering, including:
Flight/ground test and support
Diminishing manufacturing sources
and supplier management
Simulations
Asset/inventory management
"Breakback" — moving responsibility for
procuring all missile components back
from the government to the contractor
"Replacement-in-kind" and
credit programs
Refurbishment and resale of excess
U.S. military inventory with credit for
U.S. government purchase of more
current production missiles
Raytheon has many successful programs
that provide traditional Mission Support,
and the company is now looking beyond
what is required and coming up with innovative
ways to fulfill our customers' Mission
Support needs.
Cost-Effective Target Simulation
Implementing the armed services' requirements
for "live" firing of missiles for test
and training purposes can be difficult and
expensive. Traditionally, these firings involved
static targets of the old Soviet Bloc
nature, such as the T-72 tank or SA-6
Gainful. These are real targets, and in some
cases are very expensive to acquire and
maintain. Acquiring a Russian tank could
cost more than $3 million; destroying one of
these is cost-prohibitive.
On today's battlefield, U.S. and coalition
warfighters are engaging an asymmetric
enemy with traditional military vehicles replaced
by common commercial trucks and
sport utility vehicles. These vehicles travel at
speeds greater than 70 miles per hour, are
highly maneuverable, and can easily assimilate
with other local traffic. This makes acquiring,
tracking, engaging and destroying
these enemy targets highly difficult.
Raytheon developed an innovative means
of providing a cost-effective, remotely
controlled vehicle that can be configured to
represent various traditional military targets
or to represent the non-traditional types
seen on today's battlefield (see figure
above). The result: a remote-controlled
vehicle configured as an enemy tank costing
approximately $35,000, versus millions for
an actual tank.
Another of Raytheon's approaches to
Mission Support is how it packages Mission
Support services for its customers. In the traditional approach, Mission Support efforts
are conducted by a single program
within a product line. Instead, Raytheon
takes advantage of the knowledge and experience
found in programs and product
lines throughout the company, maximizing
Mission Support while lowering overall cost.
A Family of Products and Systems
The Raytheon Partnering in Defense (RaPID)
program is one example where the individual
support efforts of a family of systems
(AMRAAM, Maverick, and Paveway™) are
combined into a single support contract. By
eliminating duplicate tasks in the independent
program efforts, an initial cost reduction
of more than 13 percent was achieved.
The customer's future cost objective is for a
30 percent cost reduction; discussions are
now underway to provide a consolidated
maintenance facility for a family of Raytheon
products used by this international customer.
A Family of Customers
On Standard Missile-1, the approach of
combining a family of international customers
of a single Raytheon product was
used. Full-service support of the products in
10 countries were integrated into a single
contract. This resulted in significant cost
savings for the U.S. government as well as
for the individual countries.
These initial efforts in providing innovative
Mission Support solutions have been well
received by customers, and Raytheon is
actively seeking other ways to apply
these approaches.
Another of Raytheon's approaches to
Mission Support is how it packages Mission
Support services for its customers. In the traditional approach, Mission Support efforts
are conducted by a single program
within a product line. Instead, Raytheon
takes advantage of the knowledge and experience
found in programs and product
lines throughout the company, maximizing
Mission Support while lowering overall cost.
