RAVEL reconfigures the french Rafale Operational Condition Maintenance (OCM)
Helen Chachaty
 le 12/11/2019 , Maintenance aéronautique, Industrie de défense
Awarded six months ago by the Direction de la maintenance aéronautique (DMAé) to Dassault Aviation, the RAVEL contract - or VErticaLIsed RAfale - is targeting the in-depth reorganisation of support for the French combat aircraft. This ten-year contract "symbolises the new generation support contracts" and meets the ambitions laid out by the French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly when she presented the aviation Operational Condition Maintenance (OCM) reforms in December 2017.
All of the support operations for the aircraft and its equipment are now the responsibility of a single contractor, Dassault Aviation. The only exceptions are the seats and engines, for which maintenance has been entrusted to Service industriel de l'aéronautique (SIAé) and Safran respectively. "With this contract, the company is continuing the through-life support it launched over fifteen years ago, expanding the scope and increasing the Rafales' level of commitment and availability", explains the aircraft manufacturer in an internal document.
Dassault Aviation has set up logistical one-stop shops at the aircraft' home bases (Landivisiau, Mont-de-Marsan and Saint-Dizier), in particular to manage stocks, spare parts, accessories and equipment and to provide on-site logistical and technical support. The contract also provides for the aircraft manufacturer taking charge of the support engineering aspects, comprising central technical assistance with airworthiness monitoring, damage processing and repair solutions, but also the creation of a central "integrated Government-industry" technical platform, based in Bordeaux and tasked with implementing the contract. The engineering services also comprise the equipment testability, maintainability and reliability performance analysis.
"RAVEL provides the opportunity to make tangible digital progress", explains Dassault Aviation. Among the solutions developed under this contract is a Rafale Fleet information system, "a stock and equipment maintenance tasks manager, connected to the new Field6 documentary viewer". This will replace the technical and logistical systems which are currently being used by the French armed forces. At the same time, the aircraft manufacturer has also developed a big data platform, which is tasked with connecting all data relative to fleet use. This will "monitor the performances of the RAVEL contract, generate feedback and feed into the predictive maintenance algorithms".
Dassault Aviation's annual estimates over the duration of the contract provide for 3 200 to 4 000 repairs per year, 700 to 1 000 general services and 150 000 to 180 000 consumables delivered.
This first verticalised contract, which will be the template for future armed forces aircraft OCM contracts, will bring others in its wake. Dassault Aviation is therefore targeting "over the coming months" the signature of global contracts for the Atlantique 2, Alphajet and Mirage 2000.
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