RISK MITIGATION FOR DECREASED F/A-18 READINESS CAUSED BY IMPROPERLY EXECUTED AIRFRAME INSPECTIONS ON MISSILE SUPPORT RIB DOOR 144

The F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather fighter/attack tactical aircraft with an intended design life of 6,000 flight hours. Increased utilization in numerous recent military campaigns has caused the F/A-18 to reach the end of its intended life sooner than expected. The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) implemented a Service Life Management Plan (SLMP) to extend the F/A-18's service life up to 10,000 flight hours through a series of recurring inspections. While performing these inspections, maintenance personnel oftentimes cause unintended structural damage that requires unscheduled maintenance and negatively impacts system readiness and mission capability. This thesis analyzes repair data records for the Missile Support Rib Door 144 on the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft collected over the last five years and provides a cost-benefit analysis for several risk reduction options for those repairs. While this analysis focuses on this one area of the F/A-18, the same methodology can be applied to other SLMP inspections. This study concludes that by adding one extra day to the inspection timeline and permitting additional O-Level Quality Assurance checks of the preparation process, nearly 50% of all unscheduled SLMP maintenance and the associated negative impact on aircraft readiness can be prevented.Civilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. distribution is unlimite