Alan Dron
Germany is about to hand over part of the maintenance of its Tornado combat aircraft fleet to a private Anglo-German company following a successful 'no fly, no fee' trial project in the UK.
A joint venture company to be called OTIV has been set up in Munich by Somerset, UK-based Claverham and Germany's Frankfurt-based Nord Mikro, whose interests include repair and overhaul, avionics and electronics.
The deal followed a two-year trial with Claverham's SCM division that saw Panavia Tornado groundings due to rudder and taileron actuation system problems drop from 180 to fewer than 20 per year.
Obvious
"The German air force saw that the RAF's Tornadoes were flying far more regularly than theirs," says Nick Guttridge, Claverham's business development director. "When questioning why, it became obvious that the service we were providing the RAF on flight control actuators was a major factor."
The Luftwaffe then encouraged Claverham to formulate a similar deal for its Tornado fleet. Under the new contract, the service pays Claverham an agreed sum per hour that the Tornado fleet flies.
"We've received an initial coordination phase contract and we're negotiating a contract for a three-year period which should be consolidated in the next few weeks," says Guttridge.
He declines to give a value for the contract but says it is roughly in line, pro rata, with the 10-year, £65 million ($105 million) contract with the RAF signed earlier this year. He anticipates that German navy Tornadoes will be included in the contract
An integral part of the project is Claverham's proprietary supply chain management (SCM) process, which smooths the flow of replacement parts to the squadrons.
"We're being encouraged by a number of people to look at providing this SCM service to cover a whole range of products," says Guttridge. "We're looking at establishing other joint ventures."
Source: Flight Daily News
