ALIS Is Dying; Long Live F-35's ODIN - Breaking Defense

The F-35 program began taking a major step the last two weeks toward removing an enormous albatross from around its neck by replacing the much-maligned ALIS logistics system with its sleeker, faster and younger replacement, ODIN.

The move to install ODIN on two of 14 deployments brings the logistics and planning system to units in all three services that are buying the plane.

An official DoD story noted the installation of the new hardware called the ODIN Base Kit (OBK) on July 16 for Strike Fighter Squadron 125 at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., and Aug. 6 for the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The remaining 12 deployments should be finished in 2022.
Between April and May, Pax River testers evaluated the most recent software release for the F-35, designed for the original ALIS Standard Operating Units (SOUs) and the OBK. The OBK is 30% cheaper, 75% smaller and 90% lighter than the ALIS SOU, according to the Joint Program Office.

“The new capability worked very well,” the F-35 Patuxent River ITF ALIS/ODIN ST&E team lead, Dave Madera, told Patuxent River’s Navy authorized paper, The Tester. The software worked noticeably faster on both systems, but was especially effective on the OBK.
The new ODIN system (which, like the F-35 itself, was designed by Lockheed Martin) comes in two suitcase-sized cases weighing 100 pounds, replacing a big electronics box that weighed around 800 pounds. Its increased computing power cuts processing times by as much as 50%.

Richard Aboulafia, a top aircraft expert at the Teal Group, was willing to give the new setups the benefit of the doubt: “Given advances in software and other computing technologies, there’s no way this can’t be significantly better. But on the other hand, some of the concerns about the previous system related to operational sovereignty, which probably won’t be addressed by this new system.”

Setting up the original ALIS was well known to be difficult and time-consuming. The official story described the new system’s installation this way: “At each site, the hardware installation and set-up were complete and systems ready for operation in a matter of days, demonstrating the suitability and ease of use for administrators of this new hardware.”