On the occasion of Paris Airshow 2019, Airbus Helicopters has launched seven new products for military customers under its digital support services offering called Smartforce. With these additions, Airbus expands the Smartforce offering, and allows customers to select the services that best fit the specific requirements of their fleets and aircraft mix.

The development of such new digital services, through Smartforce, is the Airbus response to the growing requirement of military customers to leverage big data analytics in support of their operations.

The Smartforce line of services, ranging from long-term maintenance scheduling to predictive maintenance as well as automation of administrative tasks associated with aircraft support, have attracted both customers and industry support. This includes the French Procurement Agency (DGA – Direction Générale de l’Armement) which, through its technology development programme Optaforce, has partnered with Airbus and start-up COSLING to develop and mature a tool for mixed fixed and rotary-wing fleet management and long-term maintenance scheduling.

Smartforce services such as Smart Maintenance Planning, Smart Reliability Analytics or Smart Fleet Optimisation are solutions applicable to both military aircraft and helicopters, and are aimed at improving troubleshooting, optimising the maintenance effort, predicting maintenance actions, and planning smartly for material demand.

They are complemented with others, more specific to rotary-wing fleets such as Smart Flight Analyser aimed at enhancing safety or Smart Predictive Maintenance dedicated to maintenance actions anticipation.

In addition, to satisfy military security requirements, SmartForce incorporates robust security measures such as geographic isolation.

With Smartforce our military customers now have access to the same type of data-driven solutions that are today in use with more than 1,600 fixed wing military and almost 700 civil helicopters, an achievement that highlights the importance of data analytics for smart fleet, more efficient maintenance management, and improved availability in a safer environment.