SBIR-STTR Award

A significant concern for the maintenance community is the phenomenon of intermittent electrical faults that occur in the operational environment but do not manifest themselves in the static maintenance environment. Testing with traditional ATE results in an LRU or EWIS being returned as NFF and reinstalled on the weapon system only for the operational failure to occur again. According to a memorandum released 11 April 2019 by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Mr. Kenneth D. Watson, 50% of electronic components entering maintenance are returned as NFF; "resulting in over 278,000 days of end-item non-availability and approximately $3 billion in non-value-added sustainment costs annually."? The memorandum goes on to say that, "intermittent electronics failures are a leading contributor to DoD's NFF problem"? and he has charged the military services to "rapidly promulgate intermittence detection and isolation capabilities, as defined by MIL-PRF-32516"?. This proposal is to expand the benefits of intermittent fault detection technology and develop a test and evaluation (T&E) protocol by leveraging the Joint Intermittence Testing (JIT) Working Integrated Product Team (WIPT) recommended initial focus for reducing the rate of NFF, reducing electronic maintenance costs, and reducing weapon system non-availability caused by intermittent electrical faults.

The Department of Defense (DoD) sustainment & logistics communities are consistently striving to improve operational readiness, therefore the Services are seeking ways to reduce No Fault Found (NFF) and increase Materiel Readiness to 80%. The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has established the Joint Intermittence Testing Working Integrated Product Team (JIT WIPT) and has calculated the negative cost impact of NFF at $3 billion annually, with intermittent faults cited as the primary cause. It's not just about the money. For many DoD weapon system components that cause operational failures, less than half have the actual root cause of the problem identified and repaired, the other half test NFF. The negative implications for critical combat equipment that form the backbone of our tactical air power are stark according to the September 2018 GAO Report "Weapon System Sustainment: Selected Air Force and Navy Aircraft Generally Have Not Met Availability Goals".