So you are an F-16 user or maintainer and you need to order a spare F-16 electrical wiring harness. You try your normal ordering channels but no one is quoting. Instead their response is “no bid” due to one of the following reasons: (a) no Harness Assembly Drawing (HAD) available, (b) no Mylar available, or (c) no drawing or tooling available. So what do you do? You have a firm requirement for that wiring harness but you do not know how to procure one. Listed below are 4 steps that you can do to resolve this situation. These four steps are the same for MICAP (Mission Impaired Capability Awaiting Parts) situations for F-16 wire harnesses.
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Check whether the F-16 wiring harness is a retrofit or not
In order to do this, look at what is physically marked on the wiring harness. All F-16 wiring harnesses start with “H16DW”. The next 3 or 4 characters are numbers that correspond to locations in the aircraft. The last section of the part number is a dash sign and then three numbers that are commonly called dash numbers. Thus a typical part number might be H16DW1812-512. In this example, the basic part number is H16DW1812. The dash number is 512. A retrofit part number is always in the 500’s. A retrofit wiring harness is one that has been modified or upgraded since the time it was originally manufactured. Thus H16DW1812-512 is a retrofit wiring harness since the dash number is in the 500’s.
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If the wiring harness is a retrofit
Go back and find all of the TCTOs (Time Compliance Technical Orders) that were performed on the wiring harness. Next, order the original, production wiring harness. In the case of the example above, the original production part number might have been H16DW1812-150. Once it arrives, install it in the aircraft and apply all TCTO’s again in the same order that they were performed over the years. Note that you will have to order all of the material required for each TCTO involving that F-16 wiring harness.
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If the wiring harness is not a retrofit
In this case your problem is more difficult but not impossible. The situation now is that for some reason, the tooling (i.e. the HAD or Mylar) for that F-16 wiring harness (that was once in production) is no longer available. The first thing to do is to check for typos. Ensure that the part number you need is correct. It is beneficial to actually look at the actual wire harness on the aircraft. If the wire harness is difficult to read, then review the aircraft maintenance records. Also ensure that your normal source for ordering spare parts did not enter a typo. If no typo exists then go to Step 4.
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Last Option
At this time, you have two options: (a) reverse engineer the wiring harness or (b) work with Lockheed Martin or their F-16 licensees for electrical wiring components to resolve the situation. If you reverse engineer the wiring harness, simply remove it from the aircraft, lay it out, take all measurement of lengths and breakout locations, and make a HAD for it. If you decide not reserve engineer it, then either Lockheed Martin or their licensee can either do the reverse engineering or can go back through the sequence of production and retrofit wiring harnesses and develop a new production tool. In either case it gets costly once you get to Step 4 but at least there is a way to get out of this situation and get your F-16 flying again.
InterConnect Wiring is a licensee to Lockheed Martin for F-16 electrical wiring components. If you need more information or want to apply for assistance in procuring an F-16 wire harness, click the button below.
