Honeywell partners with RFD Australia to sustain F-35 at Williamtown

North Carolina company Honeywell has signed a partnering agreement with Melbourne-based RFD Australia Pty Ltd, part of the Beaufort Group (formerly Survitec), to provide sustainment support for the RAAF and wider Asia Pacific F-35 fleet.

Upon activation of its new depot, Honeywell says it will license RFD Australia to provide Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) on its F-35 Back Up Oxygen System (BOS). Once repaired, the BOS products will ultimately go back into the F-35 Global Spares pool.

The primary purpose of the BOS is to ensure pilots continue to have a continuous supply of breathable oxygen while flying at high altitude under extreme conditions, even if their primary oxygen system is rendered useless for some reason.

The RFD Australian depot facility in Australia, says Honeywell, will provide additional capacity to repair these BOS products. Today these repairs are only supported out of Honeywell’s Yeovil facility in England. The activation of a new depot in the region will significantly improve F-35 sustainment activities in the Asia-Pacific, improving reliability and effective maintenance of the BOS, says the company. Most importantly, it will increase efficiency in the repair pool and reduce turnaround times for maintenance and repair of the F-35 fleet in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Our partnership with RFD Australia is a defining moment as we work together to strengthen the local F-35 maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities in Australia to support the Royal Australian Air Force and the APAC fleet,” said Lee Davis, senior director of sales, Defense and Space, Australia, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies. “The activation of the RFD Australia depot will enhance mission continuity and improve F-35 sustainment activities across Asia Pacific.”

“RFD Australia has a proud history of providing safety critical solutions to the Australian Defence Force and this partnership with Honeywell will further enhance our capabilities in support of the F-35,” said Paul Sedgman, managing director, Oceania, RFD Australia.

Honeywell has a longstanding track record of supplying advanced equipment to the global F-35 fleet, the company says. Each F-35 contains more than 100 unique Honeywell parts, including avionics systems, inertial navigation systems, engine fuel controls, wheels and brakes and the Power and Thermal Management System (PTMS).

Honeywell’s PTMS combines all the functions of an auxiliary power unit, emergency power unit, environmental control system and thermal management system in one highly integrated package. The PTMS from Honeywell is the only system of its kind in operation, with its operational performance and maturity proven through the 1 million flight hours of some 1,080 F-35 aircraft delivered to date, the company says.