Obsolescense mitigation and management of electronics test equipment

The US Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) Engineering Support (ES) Division and the Integrated Materiel Management Center (IMMC), located on Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, have undertaken an enormous task of mitigation and management of obsolescence in the Army´s Integrated Family of Test Equipment (IFTE). The team of the ES Division and the co-located IMMC logistics cell provides total life-cycle engineering and logistics management and support of diagnostics, prognostics, test equipment, and systems for aviation, missile, and other Department of Defense and government agencies in support of the warfighter. The IFTE family of test equipment includes the Base Shop Test Facility (BSTF), the Commercial Equivalent Equipment (CEE), the Electro-Optics Test Facility, and the Next Generation Automatic Test System. The basic mission of the IFTE is to support the testing of electronic and electro-optic weapons devices. In 2004 an obsolescence assessment of the IFTE BSTF functional test cards revealed a very serious problem. The IFTE BSTF was found to have a large percentage of microelectronic obsolescence. In order to address this issue, an Obsolescence Working Group (OWG) was formed to identify, recommend, and initiate corrective actions. The OWG identified several options for mitigating the obsolescence issues with the IFTE BSTF. Cost comparisons were performed for each of the options. Although most of the options appeared feasible and economical, funding was not available to support any of them. The OWG initiated actions to obtain funding through Army cost savings and reliability improvement programs.