AIR International – June 2018

(Jacob Rumans) #1
76 | http://www.airinternational.com

MILITARY LEONARDO-FINMECCANICA P-72A


aircraft flew around 1,300 hours, but at the
beginning of 2018 the monthly average has
increased to around 100 hours per aircraft.
In 2018, we are aiming to achieve 2,400
hours, because under the support contract
each aircraft should fly at least 800 hours
per year.”
The only shortcoming at present is the
lack of availability of some spare parts. The
spares holding is owned by Leonardo, so
the manufacturer has to gain the relevant
experience to enable it to assess the
requirements for spares delivery, and the range
and quantities of parts to be held available.

Maintenance support
From a maintenance point of view, the aircraft
were supplied with an integrated logistical
support contract, which includes a logistics
management manager and two field support
representatives, one for the aircraft and one
for the mission systems. These engineers
provide a consultancy service for the
management of the aircraft and for inspection
and maintenance operations, but do not
operate directly on the aircraft. Maintenance

is always entrusted to the specialist personnel
of 41° Stormo’s GEA, who underwent type
qualification courses with ATR at Toulouse
and with Leonardo at Turin. The GEA is
in charge of flight-line operations, the
allocation and programming of flying hours,
the management of aircraft configurations,
and also with some more complex and
invasive checks, such as the calendar-based
inspections conducted after two years of
operation, which last around four weeks,
including anti-corrosion checks which involve
dismantling many parts. The maintenance
programme mostly mirrors that followed
by civilian ATR-72s, with additional checks
caused by the militarisation of the aircraft.
As far as technical checks are concerned,
the calendar maintenance programme is
based on a long series of progressive checks:
once a week there is a very minor inspection,
known as a weekly. Then there is a monthly
inspection, which is followed by a three-
monthly and a six-monthly check, one every
nine months, one at 18 months and one at

30 months. Functional checks are performed
in parallel. Every 500 flying hours there is a
Check A, while a Check C is scheduled for
5,000 hours, this being the most in-depth
maintenance process. Obviously, in order to
reduce aircraft down time and to optimise
the utilisation of personnel, when possible
calendar and functional checks are combined.
Only in the case of more complex faults,
requiring second or third level intervention
(which have not yet occurred) is it necessary
to return the aircraft to the manufacturer
for the problem to be resolved. This type
of support started in November 2016 and
is contracted for five years. It is assumed
that after 2021 the Aeronautica Militare
and 41° Stormo will have gained the
skills and experience to manage the fleet
completely in-house. At present, technical
personnel are trained by the Direzione
Addestramento (Training Directorate) of the
11° RMV (Reparto Manutenzione Velivoli or
Aircraft Maintenance Depot), a unit that is
also based at Sigonella and that in the past
was occupied with undertaking Atlantic

Two sensors of the ATOS system: the black radome houses the Seaspray 7300E radar, and the Star Safire HD
electro-optical system on the right.

The P-72’s glass cockpit, dominated by two main multifunction displays, is almost identical to the version
used on the civil ATR-72-600.

One of the four stations at which mission system operators can recall images from any of the on-board sensors.

Free download pdf