The Common Test Station (CTS) for guided weapons testing

The Common Test Station (CTS) was originally designated as a member of the CASS DoD Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) family. This designation was a result of expected commonality of design architecture and equipment selection between CASS and the CTS. The Navy's CASS was originally targeted for a broad range of avionics systems in support of Naval aviation and other shipboard electronic systems. As the CTS design matured, the CTS similarities with CASS diminished due to the differences in guided weapons testing requirements and the selection of VXI architecture for the CTS. Because the CTS and CASS are used in two different test domains, the CTS was defined as a separate DoD ATE family. The CTS, developed by Hughes Missile Systems Company (Hughes), tests a wide variety of guided weapons and represents the newest standard ATE family in the DoD ATE inventory. The CTS combats the proliferation of specialized ATE in the world of guided weapons. The CTS is designed with the latest COTS technology to meet the technical challenges inherent in testing guided weapons while in factory, depot, or weapons station environments. This paper discusses the features and capabilities of the CTS.