A CLOSE LOOK AT
GLOBAL SUSTAINMENT
By Laurie Quincy

At Lockheed Martin, global sustainment can mean many things to many people, but essentially, it is about keeping aircraft relevant, capable and mission ready after they are delivered to the customer.

We do this by understanding our customers' needs and continuously improving technologies and capabilities to deliver operational effectiveness and affordable readiness throughout the product life cycle.

No one understands this concept better than Lockheed Martin F-16 Contractor Engineering Technical Services (CETS) professionals, Elaine Roman, Dan Robertson and their worldwide team. The Lockheed Martin CETS team is an extension of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Global Sustainment, providing international and domestic support to all F-16 Block versions.

If you were to ask any of Lockheed Martin's 50 deployed CETS professionals what they do for a living, they'd answer, "We do whatever it takes to get those F-16s flying!" They love what they do, and they do it well.

Currently 50 Lockheed Martin CETS professionals are deployed to more than 60 locations throughout the U.S. and abroad. These professionals work side-by-side with their military counterparts, ensuring that the F-16 Fighting Falcon maintains the highest level of affordable readiness for Lockheed Martin customers.

Louie Alcon, Lockheed Martin CETS representative, works with a U.S. Air Force customer on troubleshooting issues and understanding what the customer needs to deliver operational effectiveness in the field.

They assist our U.S. and allied partners with F-16 repair and support issues while simultaneously setting up systems and procedures that the customer needs to achieve self-sufficiency. They provide routine technical services and assist the customer with a quick resolution of difficult maintenance anomalies. F-16 Global Sustainment CETS professionals are Lockheed Martin's technical experts and ambassadors.

They are the first line of support for our customers, and they are maintenance experts capable of resolving a wide variety of issues. They are incredible customer service professionals who were handpicked for this role based on their demonstrated abilities to form dynamic working partnerships with Lockheed Martin customers.

Lockheed Martin CETS representative Doug Nadon works closely with Global Sustainment's Thailand customer to ensure that the fleet of F-16s is at the highest level of mission readiness.

CETS personnel are sometimes called upon to accompany the F-16 Air National Guard units on Air Expeditionary Forces deployments to Iraq. CETS participation in these deployments has resulted in improved fix and mission capability rates, increased aircraft availability and overall improved scheduling effectiveness for the customer.

The extensive knowledge in aircraft system design and operations is expanded for the customer by Lockheed Martin CETS professionals in the field through an incredible technical reachback capability. This reachback enables the customer to access a full range of Original Equipment Manufacturer support, including product support, engineering, quality, flight safety information and much more. Together, this combined team of customers and Lockheed Martin field service representatives and engineering experts keep the F-16 mission ready and mission capable.

With F-16 CETS professionals out in the field with the customer, the future of Lockheed Martin's Global Sustainment enterprise has never looked brighter. The future for Global Sustainment across all aircraft platforms continues to be a growing and evolving part of the business as our customers look for guidance from Lockheed Martin to maximize their return on investment in a challenging economy.

A valued and integral part of the Aeronautics business, Global Sustainment is a key component of delivering customer value and setting the standard for providing readiness to warfighters by making it "our mission to support their mission."

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