Realizing Net-Centric Diagnostics Within the Naval Maintenance System

The U.S. Navy's current implementation of the three-level maintenance philosophy achieves mission readiness. However, there are inefficiencies in the maintenance system which waste resources and manpower. These inefficiencies may be overcome by facilitating improved testing capabilities and data sharing between the Organizational level of maintenance (O-level) and the Intermediate level (l-level) and/or Depot (D-level). The Integrated Diagnostics and Automated Test Systems (IDATS) team at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Lakehurst has investigated the realization of net-centric avionics diagnostics within the current Navy maintenance system. This paper describes efforts by the IDATS team to realize a proof-of-concept demonstration involving many aircraft maintenance technologies. These include data mining, diagnostic reasoning, and the transmission of diagnostic and maintenance data between levels of maintenance in order to reduce diagnostic ambiguities and testing time for an avionics system. Cost savings resulting from increased aircraft operational availability (Ao) can be achieved by implementing a net-centric approach to diagnostics Navy maintenance system. within the current Navy maintenance system.