PRODUCT SUPPORT
underlying condition, adaptability, and resilience of the patient. In the sustainment world, the binary view obscures whether a system is robust enough to withstand operational stress or fragile enough to fail under pressure. Introducing Materiel Resilience To move beyond surface-level availability measures, we need a way to capture not just whether a system is up or down, but how it behaves un - der stress and how quickly it recovers when it fails. In other words, we need a metric that reflects the system’s un - derlying health, not just its status at a single point in time. This requires combining three crit - ical dimensions of sustainment: how long a system runs before it needs
attention, how quickly it can be re - paired, and how responsive the logis - tics chain is in supplying the parts and tools required. Taken together, these factors provide a more complete pic - ture of resilience than availability alone can offer. The revised instruction should in - troduce a new metric: MR = MTBM / MTBM + (MTTR + MLDT). The elements in this new equation are the following: • MTBM. This goes to reliability— how long a system operates be - fore requiring maintenance. • MTTR. This means maintainabil - ity—how quickly corrective main - tenance is completed. • MLDT. This shows support re - sponsiveness—the time lost awaiting parts, tools, personnel, or transport.
These elements provide a for - mula that separates reliability from maintainability and logistics delay while offering a diagnostic lens into system health. A higher MR value in - dicates strength indicating that fail - ures are infrequent and recovery is swift. A lower MR value signals fragil - ity involving frequent breakdowns or prolonged repairs. Resilience Matters— A Medical Analogy Ao and Am remain useful for re - porting availability, but they do not distinguish between systems that rarely fail and those that fail often but recover quickly. MR fills that gap. In medicine, clinicians never would base a diagnosis on a single symptom. They assess blood pres - sure, heart rate, immune response, recovery time, and stress tolerance. A healthy patient isn’t just stable, they’re resilient. They bounce back from illness, absorb stress, and main - tain function under pressure. Sustainment must follow the same logic. Ao and Am are the vital signs. MR is the recovery profile. It tells us whether a system can with - stand operational stress and return to full mission capability without prolonged downtime. In operations, consider an Intelli - gence, Surveillance, and Reconnais - sance (ISR) platform going down mid- sortie due to a sensor fault. Within minutes, maintainers are on it. They have the part, the tools, and the train - ing. The aircraft is back in the air in under four hours. On paper, avail - ability is restored. But this is the third fault in two weeks. The sortie count looks fine, yet the underlying issue quietly erodes operational margin. Macro readiness hides micro trends, and that’s the gap our current metrics don’t capture. In today’s operational reality, sys - tems are pushed harder, deployed longer, and exposed to more com - plex threats. High operational tempo accelerates wear. Harsh climates cor -
Northern lights are visible above High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) systems on site for training during exercise Arctic Edge 2024. U.S. Marines with Fox Battery, 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve conducted the training at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, Feb. 26, 2024. The HIMARS weapon system is a highly mobile artillery rocket system that fires six guided missiles in quick suc- cession. Arctic Edge 2024 (AE24) is a U.S. Northern Command-led homeland defense exercise demonstrating the U.S. military’s capabilities in extreme cold weather, Joint Force readiness, and U.S. military commitment to mutual strategic security interests in the Arctic region. Source: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Master Sgt. Gerald Wendel
38 DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2026 –
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker