ARMY AL&T
easily relocated using various prime movers available to commanders, from tractor trailers to Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks.
The improved test capability allows faster and more accurate diagnosis and repair of faulty or suspected faulty components. The state-of-the-art test instrumentation, coupled with system software and TPS, allows maintainers to diagnose and repair a wide array of system components, from repairable circuit cards to sophisticated electro- optic sensors and other critical weapon system components. NGATS is easily reconfigurable and adaptable to any weapon system requirement. As the Army embraces policies for DOD Enterprise Resource Planning and the net-centric environment to connect logisticians with maintenance, this data-rich environment will be used to enhance supply chain operations, maintenance decisions, and component design decisions. NGATS, as a net- centric capable system with an enhanced data capture and analysis capability, can capture and share component fail- ure data throughout the supply chain, including all maintenance levels from field to organic sustainment to depot to factory.
The NGATS system has the advan- tage of being a joint capability. Its
NGATS offers significant advantages over currently fielded ATS, satisfying the dual sustainment functions of both diagnosis and repair while also achieving the DOD and Army objective to consolidate all ATS to a single, standard ATS family.
technology is derived from the U.S. Navy (USN)-led Agile Rapid Global Combat Support Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD), which has an objective of exploring the potential benefits of developing and deploying a joint service automatic test capability. During the ACTD, NGATS was used as a demonstration system and was able to execute testing of Army, USN, and U.S. Marine Corps system components. This validated the con- tention that general purpose ATS is an interoperable commodity that can be leveraged for financial savings and, more importantly, an operational advantage to the warfighter.
The NGATS interior automatic test equipment console is pictured. (U.S. Army photo.)
NGATS offers significant advantages over currently fielded ATS, satisfying the dual sustainment functions of both diagnosis and repair while also achiev- ing the DOD and Army objective to consolidate all ATS to a single, standard ATS family. A reduction in the logistics footprint by displacing several aging and obsolete test systems with a modern test capa- bility also supports the Army’s logistics modern- ization initiatives. This is done by leveraging its net-centric capabil- ity into the component diagnostics and repair data collection and management process. This enables closed loop diagnostics by making real-time reliability and performance data avail- able from the field to the factory. Even as systems
move to become more self-diagnosing through embedded diagnostics and prognostics, until those same systems become self-repairing, NGATS will be required to provide organic support for system component diagnostics and repair.
NGATS has proven to be joint capable with its open-system architecture and use of industry standards and COTS components. The warfighter benefits operationally from the NGATS system with its improved test capability, reliability, supportability, and deployability. When coupled with its extreme flexibility, NGATS will be positioned to provide any level of component support at any point within a system’s support strategy.
PATRICK A. CURRY is the Assistant Product Manager, Off-Platform ATS TMDE. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida and an M.S. in indus- trial engineering from Texas A&M University, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Materiel Command’s Advanced Test and Evaluation Engineering Program and the U.S. Army Management Engineering College. Curry is Level III certified in systems planning, research, develop- ment, and engineering and is a U.S. Army Acquisition Corps member.
JULY –SEPTEMBER 2010
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