Autonomic logistics-the support concept for the 21/sup st/ century

The Joint Strike Fighter Program will produce a family of lethal, affordable, supportable, and survivable aircraft to serve with the USAF, USN, USMC, RN, RAF, and other allied nations. This combined fleet of aircraft will have a major influence on the way that combat aircraft and the air element of expeditionary forces are supported. With affordability at the heart of the JSF acquisition process, innovative use of leveraging technologies will allow high sortie generation rates with a much reduced logistics footprint and significantly decreased total ownership cost. At the heart of affordability in Total Ownership Costs (TOC) is a revolution in the way the aircraft will be supported. The term "Autonomic Logistics" has been coined to describe an essentially automatic set of processes to ensure maximum sortie generation with minimum logistics footprint and costs, while still maintaining high mission reliability. This concept and these processes will also provide an adaptive responsiveness to the Commander's Intent and the Warfighter's needs. This paper builds on the JSF Autonomic Logistics Vision and describes the key characteristics of a new Logistic Support Environment.