IMP Update

Carl Kumpic, the director of IMP Aerospace, is up next.

IMP is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The company has one primary facility at Halifax International Airport. IMP is a Lockheed Martin P-3 Authorized Service Center. It has 1,800 employees involved in the Aerospace Division of the company. The company has been named as one of the Top 100 employers in Canada to work for. IMP has 475,000 square feet of workspace in nine hangars.

Hangar 9 is the company's new facility for performing Airframe Service Life Extension Programs (ASLEP) upgrades. It can accomodate a number of P-3s at one time.

The company has provided support and services to the Canadian CP-140 fleet for several decades. One continuing project is changing out Kapton wiring in P-3s. The company has the ability to repair and manufacture major componets such as weapons bay doors. It has a lot of capability for refurbishing P-3 QEC nacelles.

ASLEP programs -- The ASLEP kit includes more than just the outer wings. It also includes horizontal stablizer replacement, nacelle refurbishment, fairings, and leading edges on the wings and stabilizer. IMP is currently has contracts for six Royal Norwegian Air Force P-3s and 10 CP-140 aircraft for Canada.

ASLEP challenges -- set up of the new facility and training of employees; scale of materials removal; and definition of technical approval process. One change to the process that has been implemented is installation of nacelles to the wing before wing installation on the aircraft, which has dramatically improved schedule performance.

For the Canadian CP-140 fleet, those aircraft are undergoing both ASLEP and an avionics upgrade program as well. This is called the Aurora Incremental Modernization Program. The first RCAF aircraft will be redelivered by the end of 2011.