Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS)/Non Developmental Item (NDI) testing for Department of Defense using infra-red technology

This paper presents solutions to the challenges facing Department of Defense testing of Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) and Non Developmental Items (NDI). The solution proposed is testing using thermal imaging technology. Thermal imaging is a bold departure from traditional testing methodology such as Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) in conjunction with Test Program Sets (TPS). Such traditional testing methodology requires a certain amount of technical data. However, with COTS and NDI commercial vendors may choose to not sell their technical data or, as is often the case, it is cost prohibitive for DoD to purchase the documentation and drawings. Thermal imaging is ideal for DoD COTS and NDI testing and repair because it requires no technical data.