Regional MRO Capability Needs To Be Fixed

Considering the cost of MRO over the lifetime of a platform, it is only recently that this vital capability is being built up in Asia Pacific.

- Beth Stevenson

Asia-Pacific nations are increasingly acquiring a host of modern military platforms which are not only more costly to buy and operate, but need a correspondingly higher financial investment to pay for their through life costs.

Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) budget commitment is often also parallelled by the need for mid-life upgrades to keep the equipment serviceable and relevant, and many millions of dollars are spent supporting programmes through decades of operational life.

Asia-Pacific is becoming increasingly aware of the need for the provision of MRO capacity, and investment is being made to generate local support and repair providers.

The geography and weather of the AsiaPacific ranges from high mountains where engines can struggle to operate, through to an abundence of maritime islands (offering high corrosion rates) with the temperature usually hot and humid. All this adds more burden to the equipment being operated there, so the maintenance of these systems is key to them being effectively ready for operational use.

Additionally, due to the nature of political relations in the Asia-Pacific, military exercises are often carried out, which almost always use operational equipment which further impacts on the operational life of the platforms in use.

Vehicle MRO

The military vehicle MRO market is expected to be worth $24 billion in 2017, with growth of 3.67 percent CAGR leading to an increase to $34.4 billion by 2027, according to a report by Research and Markets.

This demand is expected to be led by the Asia-Pacific, which will take a 27 percent share of the market, followed by North America with 25 percent.