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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
FY97 Annual Report

AV-8B HARRIER REMANUFACTURE

	Navy ACAT IC Program 73 aircraft Total program cost (TY$) $2,276M Average unit cost (TY$) $31.6M Full-rate production 2QFY97 Prime Contractor McDonnell Douglas

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The AV-8B Remanufacture program will produce 73 remanufactured AV-8B Harriers for the Fleet Marine Force that are intended to be identical to the current new-production night Attack/Radar Harriers in configuration and operational performance, providing precision engagement and supporting dominant maneuver for Marine Air-Ground Task Forces. The remanufactured aircraft have the upgraded Rolls-Royce F402-RR-408A engine, the APG-65 radar (cannibalized from F/A-18C/D aircraft getting the Radar Upgrade APG-73) and a Navigation/Attack FLIR. Each aircraft will be a mixture of new components (fuselage and engine) and refurbished parts/systems (wing and radar), assembled on the same production tooling as the final new-production aircraft.

Facing a potential shortfall of AV-8B Harrier attack aircraft after the turn of the century, the Marine Corps initiated a program in 1993 to remanufacture 73 day-attack configured aircraft to the latest night-attack/radar configuration, gaining substantial service life in the process. The remanufacture would use the wing and tail assemblies from retiring day-attack AV-8Bs, a new-manufacture fuselage, radar sets from F/A-18C aircraft, and new GFE engines to produce "new" aircraft.

In initial program briefings in 1993, the Navy planned no DT&E or OT&E beyond the factory acceptance test flight on each remanufactured aircraft as it came off the final assembly line, despite the fact that the remanufactured aircraft would comprise a mixture of used, refurbished, and brand-new components assembled in a totally new process (albeit on existing production tooling). DOT&E insisted on at least a limited period of OT&E to confirm that the remanufacture process had not degraded the effectiveness or suitability of the AV-8B below that of new aircraft. OT-IIIB began on April 8, 1996, and was suspended on June 7, 1996 because of poor aircraft reliability, maintainability, and availability. The main reliability problems seemed to center on the interface of new-manufacture parts and components stripped from older aircraft and assembled without sufficient process and quality control. Improvements were made by the contractor, and testing resumed on April 28, 1997, and was completed successfully on May 30, 1997.

The poor aircraft reliability experienced on the first remanufactured AV-8B (approximately one-tenth the required 12.6 hours between operational mission hardware failures) caused OT-IIIB to be suspended until quality improvements could be undertaken by the manufacturer. These improvements were apparently successful, as the next three remanufactured aircraft exhibited greatly improved reliability, evidenced by the collective reliability in over 700 flight hours of 32.6 hours between mission aborts caused by hardware failures.

The remanufactured AV-8B eventually proved to be operationally effective and suitable, although deficiencies were noted in air-to-ground weapon delivery (inability to automatically detect targets and deliver weapons using ground-based and airborne laser designators). In addition, insufficient mission computer processing capacity and the inability to record cockpit displays limited the effectiveness of the weapon system.

DOT&E insistence on at least a limited period of OT&E in a low-risk remanufacture program was ultimately justified when unanticipated problems with the remanufacture process caused poor system reliability.