Google Cloud, Air Force announce aircraft maintenance initiative

Google Cloud and the Air Force's Rapid Sustainment Office are partnering to launch an aircraft maintenance initiative that officials say seeks to bolster maintenance readiness and staff productivity while slashing expenses.

Named “Project Lighthouse,” the agreement, unveiled today, would leverage Google Cloud technology to build an ecosystem to integrate technology from manufacturing robotics and predictive maintenance software to augmented reality headsets, according to a press release. Further details about the initiative’s application weren’t immediately available.

“Our partnership with Google Cloud is a significant milestone for RSO on our journey to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies, when everything is connected, and deliver on our mandate to solve the Air Force’s toughest sustainment challenges,” RSO Deputy Program Executive Officer Nathan Parker said in the release. “What we’re building with Google Cloud will accelerate the way we adopt, integrate, and scale technologies for the Air Force."

It’s unclear how much the effort will cost and what the timeline for it is going forward. Before launching the project, the release noted the ecosystem would be “prototyped, validated, and tested for scalability within the Air Force’s technology environment."

Started in 2018, the RSO was pitched as a way to improve and solve long-held sustainment processes and problems, boost agile manufacturing and more.