4 ms·

AIUI, every component of the plane has a unique identity and status. It sounded to me like this involves digital signatures and all that. So presumably, manual

AIUI, every component of the plane has a unique identity and status. It sounded to me like this involves digital signatures and all that. So presumably, manual maintenance without the proper bookkeeping would be viewed as tampering/sabotage, and the plane would refuse to operate.

gherkin0 11y ago
> manual maintenance without the proper bookkeeping would be viewed as tampering/sabotage, and the plane would refuse to operate. If that's true, it sounds like a solution is search of a requirement. IIRC, but I don't think the US military has had problems with tampering and sabotage of military jets.
- brokenmachine 11y ago
  Sounds more like DRM than prevention of sabotage. Like in printer ink heads... "Attention! Counterfeit hydraulics system installed. F-35 disabled until genuine system purchased". This would stop people buying cheap F-35 spare parts from China on ebay and trying to save a couple of million dollars.
engi_nerd 11y ago
Interesting speculation, but General Bogdan's assertion that you can operate an individual F-35 for "up to 30 days" without ALIS indicates otherwise.
- CWuestefeld 11y ago
  I don't think that contradicts my understanding. If no maintenance was necessary in the 30 day period, then there wouldn't be anything to detect.
  - engi_nerd 11y ago
    A droll reply would be, "It's a fighter, maintenance is always necessary." But to give a real answer: If a jet sits for 30 days without any maintenance, then it's supposed to be preserved. This means all fuel is offloaded, all lubricants drained and then refilled and then drained again (leaving a film of clean lubricant over important parts), etc. Otherwise, you have to perform an engine run to keep the aircraft nominally flyable. Really, if you aren't flying, you are either doing maintenance to prepare to fly, fixing something, performing scheduled inspections, or performing modifications. So if the aircraft is operational, there is no such thing as a 30 day period without maintenance. Without ALIS, you just do all of this via the old paper processes for a while.

gherkin0 11y ago

> manual maintenance without the proper bookkeeping would be viewed as tampering/sabotage, and the plane would refuse to operate. If that's true, it sounds like a solution is search of a requirement. IIRC, but I don't think the US military has had problems with tampering and sabotage of military jets.

brokenmachine 11y ago
Sounds more like DRM than prevention of sabotage. Like in printer ink heads... "Attention! Counterfeit hydraulics system installed. F-35 disabled until genuine system purchased". This would stop people buying cheap F-35 spare parts from China on ebay and trying to save a couple of million dollars.

engi_nerd 11y ago

Interesting speculation, but General Bogdan's assertion that you can operate an individual F-35 for "up to 30 days" without ALIS indicates otherwise.

CWuestefeld 11y ago
I don't think that contradicts my understanding. If no maintenance was necessary in the 30 day period, then there wouldn't be anything to detect.
- engi_nerd 11y ago
  A droll reply would be, "It's a fighter, maintenance is always necessary." But to give a real answer: If a jet sits for 30 days without any maintenance, then it's supposed to be preserved. This means all fuel is offloaded, all lubricants drained and then refilled and then drained again (leaving a film of clean lubricant over important parts), etc. Otherwise, you have to perform an engine run to keep the aircraft nominally flyable. Really, if you aren't flying, you are either doing maintenance to prepare to fly, fixing something, performing scheduled inspections, or performing modifications. So if the aircraft is operational, there is no such thing as a 30 day period without maintenance. Without ALIS, you just do all of this via the old paper processes for a while.