Application of vertical test commonality to PALADIN maintenance

This paper describes the Test/Maintenance philosophy for the PALADIN Automatic Fire Control System (AFCS). A key component of this philosophy was the willingness to allow testing requirements to drive system design, particularly in the software area. The PALADIN AFCS is an example of a successful Test Program Set (TPS) effort for a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Performance based item. Common software reuse throughout the testing lifecycle and at various maintenance levels, failure data recording and retrieval between maintenance levels, and TPS program flow modification during execution were all tools utilized to reduce development costs, and cut down AFCS Mean Time to Repair and No Evidence Of Failure occurrences. This integrated maintenance plan has greatly contributed to the maintainability of the PALADIN AFCS.