Press Release

2nd February 1998

Aerosystems International (AeI) has been awarded a contract by the British Army to design, develop, supply and support the AirCraft Computerised Equipment Support System (ACCESS) for the Army’s latest weapon system the WAH-64 Attack Helicopter.

The contract is valued at around £20 million over the 10 year contract period, including PDS.ACCESS will be the first integrated maintenance and logistics system to enter service with the British Army and will also form part of the Army’s wider Digitisation programme. ACCESS will provide the Army with the means of managing the Attack Helicopter’s maintenance and logistics information to meet the predictions for the weapon systems through life costs and improve availability.

ACCESS will also provide the required logistics information for operational planning purposes. ACCESS will support staff in logistics headquarters, as well as those at Regiment and Squadron level when the helicopter is in barracks and when deployed.The award of this contract recognises the capability of AeI to design and implement a complex maintenance and logistics system. It also establishes AeI as a world leader in the provision of a complete suite of Attack Helicopter support systems comprising mission planning, at and off-aircraft maintenance and overall logistics management systems.

Aerosystems International’s Managing Director, Scott Roy, commented, "The award of this contract is a major achievement for us and demonstrates our unique position as the leader in the supply of maintenance and logistic systems for both rotary and fixed wing applications".

AeI’s major subcontractors are BAeSEMA, GKN Westland Helicopters, Boeing, Lynwood and Logsys. Starting in January 1998, the development is due to be completed by December 1999.

The system will be progressively introduced from 2000 to 2002 with support continuing until 2008 initially. The facilities ACCESS will provide include: asset and configuration management of the WAH-64 fleet; recording and storing off-aircraft maintenance data; receiving and storing on-aircraft maintenance data from the Ground Support System; a MIL Std 1388-2B compliant host database for the WAH64 Logistic Support Analysis Record (LSAR) and the provision of a hot LSAR database to hold data on achieved logistics performance; the provision of in service usage and maintenance data and associated analysis tools supporting: Reliability Centred Maintenance; Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis; Failure Mode Effect Analysis; Level of Repair Analysis and Life Cycle Costing; the provision of operational and Equipment Support management information, forecasting and planning.

Note to Editors:

Aerosystems International, jointly owned by GKN Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS, was formed in 1985 for the sole purpose of developing aerospace systems and software, combining the avionics and systems expertise of GKN Westland with the software and project management skills of BAeSEMA.

AeI is under contract to GKN WHL for developing the WAH64 Ground Support System.

For further information please contact:

Emma Taylor
Aerosystems International Ltd
Alvington
Yeovil
Somerset
BA22 8UZ
Tel:+ 44 (0) 1935 443000 or Fax +44 (0) 1935 443111.