3. The Government of Canada announced
on July 23, 2004 its selection of the
Sikorsky Aircraft H-92 Cyclone helicopter
to replace the Canadian Forces’ aging
fleet of Sea King helicopters. As a major
partner to Sikorsky in the bid for the
Maritime Helicopter Program (MHP),
L-3 MAS will play a leading role in the
provision of In-Service Support (ISS) for
the 28 Sikorsky H-92 Cyclone medium
lift helicopters for the coming 20 years.
“We are pleased with this decision,” said
Sylvain Bédard, President of L-3 MAS.
“The H-92 Cyclone is a superior
product, and MAS has a proven ability
to provide innovative, cost effective
fleet support through the assembly and
management of strong industry teams.
The
mandate
includes ensuring a smooth transition
from production to in-service, providing
a training facility and training to Canadian
Forces aircrew and maintenance
personnel, as well as management
and control of all ISS work in strict
accordance with cost, schedule and
performance requirements. L-3 MAS
will establish a Contractor Management
Office in the Ottawa area and Contractor
Field Offices at each H-92 operating
unit, to act as the point of contact for
the Department of National Defence
(DND) and Sikorsky for all ISS issues.
4
The result will be a successful
program for the Government of
Canada, new opportunities for small
businesses – and literally decades of
new job opportunities in a number
of Canadian communities.”
The ISS portion of the MHP contract
will allow the creation of more than
100 direct jobs for L-3 MAS spread
across the country. In addition, several
L-3 MAS subcontractors will also see
significant activity. Major beneficiaries
will be communities in Atlantic Canada
and on the West Coast.
The ISS contract charges L-3 MAS with
lead responsibility for ISS set-up and
provision of extensive ISS activities.
L-3 MAS to lead
In-Service Support
for Canada’s
Maritime
Helicopter
Program
“...a successful
program for the
Government of
Canada, new
opportunities for
small businesses –
and literally
decades of new
job opportunities
in a number of
Canadian
communities.”
L-3 MAS will support Sikorsky in the
development and management of
an Accredited Technical Organization,
support the DND Weapon System
Manager with Fleet Management and
Operational Planning, and ensure
the H-92 operational availability is
maintained for its life cycle with the
Canadian Forces.
The 20-year ISS contract, which
includes options to extend in five-year
increments, provides significant
potential for long-term growth. The real
appeal for L-3 MAS, however, is the
challenging breadth and scope of its
mandate. “This is an opportunity to
demonstrate the full capabilities of our
organization,” commented Dixon
Kenny, L-3 MAS Vice-President,
Marketing and Business Development.
“The requirements of this program are
rigorous and extensive. The potential
here is huge – not only to show
what we can do, but also to stretch
ourselves and grow with the program.”
Key opportunities for L-3 MAS include
the growth of supply chain manage-
ment in support of the contract, and
the expansion of engineering support
and fleet management, which builds on
L-3 MAS’s considerable experience
developed under national and interna-
tional F/A-18 programs.
L - 3 M A S O N Y O U R W I N G 5O N Y O U R W I N G L - 3 M A S
4. A total of 62 shipsets
are to be delivered
to the RAAF in 4 lots
over a 2 year period.
...evaluated as the
“best cost per rated points”
of all competitor
proposals submitted...
6 L - 3 M A S O N Y O U R W I N G 7O N Y O U R W I N G L - 3 M A S
L-3 MAS is pleased to announce that
it has been awarded a new contract
with the Royal Australian Air Force
(RAAF) for the manufacturing and
supply of the production modification
kits for the Hornet Structural Repair
Program Phase 1 (SRP1). A total of
62 shipsets are to be delivered to the
RAAF in 4 lots over a 2 year period.
The total value of the contract is
marked at $5.4 million Cdn.
The objective of the RAAF Hornet
SRP1 program is to correct structural
deficiencies to the fuselage and wing
structures in order to lengthen the
structural life of the aircraft. The SRP1
program is similar in scope to the
Department of National Defence’s
CF-18 ALEX CP1 program.
Last year, L-3 MAS completed the
development and prototype phase of
the structural modifications. Currently,
L-3 MAS is under contract with the
RAAF to modify the first 6 production
aircraft and ensure a transfer of
knowledge to the Australian Industry
comprised of Boeing Australia Limited
and BAE SYSTEMS Australia. Later this
year, the Australian Industry will pursue
the production phase for the RAAF.
The program is to be completed over
a four-year period.
In addition, earlier this year L-3 MAS
was contracted by RAAF to undertake
a scoping study for Phase 2 of the
Structural Repair Program known as
SRP2 which involves the replacement
of the aircraft's middle section. SRP2
is aimed at ensuring full life on a limited
number of aircraft.
These on-going relationships reflect
L-3 MAS’s expertise and commitment
to being a leading provider of high
technology solutions.
L-3 MAS
Publishes
Another
Success
Story
After six years as the prime contractor
on the Department of National Defence
(DND) Publishing Services Contract,
the Technical Publications group at
L-3 MAS has now been awarded the
Publications Maintenance Services
contract.
This 34 month follow-on contract will
include the possibility of two 1-year
options, to be exercised at the Crown’s
discretion. Our proposal, generated
by the Tech Pubs department, was
evaluated as the “best cost per rated
points” of all competitor proposals
submitted to the Crown.
To successfully meet the needs of
this new mandate, our Tech Pubs
department has developed a number
of high-end publication production
skills on the various publications
programs that increase both efficiency
and throughput. For example, research
and development activities in the area
of publication enhancement features,
such as intelligent wiring diagrams,
will be available to DND under the new
contract.
In addition, our Tech Pubs group has
developed extensive capabilities in the
area of SGML to XML conversion, as
demonstrated with the conversion of
the CF-18 IETM. These skills will prove
to be particularly beneficial as work
in the areas of SGML and XML are
also anticipated under this follow-on
contract.
L- 3 MAS
Wins New
Contract
with RAAF
5. L-3 MAS
Positions
Robotic
Shot
Peening
for SuccessIt began several years ago with a small
R&D project that used a simple robot
to control the position of a shot peening
nozzle. Followed by more serious
development, this ultimately lead to
proof of concept testing that demon-
strated the capabilities of a robot to
perform shot peening in very difficult to
access locations. In fact, testing was
done with the robot inserted upside
down into a mock-up of a CF-18 fuel
tank since it is representative of one
of many challenging locations where
shot peening is required on an aircraft.
NOW, ROBOTIC SHOT PEENING
IS READY TO TAKE OFF
Traditionally, shot peening has been
applied manually on the CF-18. Shot
peening is the hammering of a struc-
ture’s surface with small ceramic beads
that in many ways, resembles the
sand-blasting process. The ceramic
beads plastically deform the surface
that is then held in compression by the
un-deformed material underneath. This
compressive effect significantly delays
the initiation of cracks in the structure.
Shot peening has proven especially
advantageous to the CF-18. As
a fighter aircraft flown under severe
conditions, the aircraft’s structure
cannot be repaired with the traditional
methods as used on commercial
aircraft. For that reason, fatigue cracks
on thick-machined structures such
as bulkheads need to be prevented
instead of repaired.
STRINGENT PROCESS CONTROL
But because shot peening is often the
only aspect of a modification, more
stringent process control was required
for critical structural components. As
a result, robotic shot peening was
explored to fulfill two main requirements.
The first requirement was to provide
8 L - 3 M A S O N Y O U R W I N G
a high level of control, accuracy and
repeatability to the shot peening
process. The second requirement was
to record all the major parameters of
the process for quality control. There
was also a third challenge. No com-
mercial robotic shot peening systems
were available on the market. So, our
robotic team designed and built our
own system.
Our system is comprised of 3 major
components:
1. Japanese built robot and controller
2. Swiss built computer controlled shot
peening machine
3. Touch screen user interface that
controls the robot, the shot peening
machine, and records all the
process parameters
