Test equipment refresh for high reliability, mission critical hardware

Addressing the challenges to reviving legacy test capability is a frequent problem facing industry. This is especially true of high reliability, low volume production military hardware with two or more decades for each life cycle. This paper describes the challenges faced when reviving a test capability for module and system test after being dormant for over a decade. Two different test station architectures are presented: traditional COTS vs. a combination of COTS and reuse. The trades used in the selection process are described which include; cost, development and support labor, risk, and technical benefits.