Do high-tech military systems raise special issues?
Tuttle: Affordability is very important to this program. Maintenance costs are driven by the reliability of the system. Phase 3 was designed in part to increase reliability, thereby reducing maintenance costs. When you buy a brand-new car for $35,000, you better not have to put too much money into it for the next five years. But these countermeasures systems are advanced military technology. You are going to have to put money into it. DoD is installing it on their C-17s and other platforms, but it’s very new technology. When you have the latest and greatest, you will have a maintenance penalty. Avionics: Can you discuss the maintenance approach? Tuttle: A major concept is that the airlines are not going to be repairing these LRUs. If this does get put on across the fleet, then airlines might come up with repairs of some of the parts. But they’re never going to repair the missile warning, laser and tracker components. Those would be sent back to the prime contractor. The airlines would
