Over the one million hours flown by the Eurofighter Typhoon global fleet during its service life, there are hundreds of millions of data points which have been collected by air forces, industry and the supply chain. Every one of them helps ensure jets are ready at the end of a runway to fulfil the critical role of securing our skies.
"Our people are problem solvers, they gather data and try to figure out how to maximise the resources they have available," explains Chris Holt, Support & Services Director for BAE Systems' Air sector.
"Supporting a fast jet fleet is something of an art. You are always trying to balance within the restrictions of safety, availability of parts, the operational demands of your customer and many other things, all to try and get the best outcome.
"We can always do better and in today's environment our customer has never needed Typhoon more - and that drives our people even harder to deliver better outcomes."
Typhoon has become the backbone of combat air defence across Europe and the Middle East and with global tensions rising, leveraging our deep knowledge of the our customers’ fleets has never been more critical in delivering better solutions.
The interoperability of Typhoon with a wide range of allied aircraft means air forces operate together, and our ability to harness global fleet data enables them to respond rapidly in high pressure situations.
Chris explains: "In the recent past we have had to support a single operator, but here we were doing it for three key customers all at the same time. It is at times like these that the deep understanding of each of these fleets is critical to ensuring you deliver.
We know that in the uncertain times we live in, our customers are constantly in a state of high readiness and our ability to respond has never been more important.Chris Holt, Support & Services Director, BAE Systems' Air sector
"The key to delivering this level of readiness lies in the global fleet and at BAE Systems we are in a unique position to drive efficiency at the heart of some of the world's biggest Typhoon fleets."
Over one million flying hours, the teams behind Typhoon have been able to learn from issues encountered in other parts of the global fleet to respond to issues before they have even become a problem.
The BAE Systems team has developed a skillset to be part detective, part data analyst and part fortune teller, trying to anticipate the needs of the future to the extent they have been able to place orders for parts to ensure they are ready on the shelf to maximise aircraft availability.
"We do not do anything alone," says Chris, "whether it is working with our customers, alongside our Eurofighter industry partners or our suppliers, we have a picture of the entire global fleet which enables us to understand and respond quickly.
"The drive to deliver more is heightened by the critical role Typhoon plays in securing our skies. Our people recognise their knowledge and experience coupled with the unique view we have across the global fleet means we play can a vital part and we are committed to ensuring we do."