Modernizing a DoD ATS family

This paper discusses modernizing a DoD Automatic Test Systems Family of testers using the Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS), the Navy's standard automatic test systems family, as the case in point. CASS has fielded over 600 mainframe testers and will ultimately support almost 3,000 Navy and Marine Corps avionics and electronics units. The CASS program was initiated in the early 1980s in response to many problems with automatic testing identified by a special study team chartered by the Secretary of the Navy. The actual design of CASS dates from the mid- to late-1980s. The initial CASS stations were ordered in 1990 and CASS entered the fleet in 1994. The last of the 613 production Mainframe CASS stations was ordered in 2002 and delivered in December 2003. The initial CASS stations are 15 years old. Modernization of the early CASS stations is driven by several factors including instrument age and associated obsolescence, condition of the station infrastructure, inflexibility of the architecture, and emerging test requirements that cannot be economically satisfied by the current CASS station configurations. Goals of the CASS Modernization Program include incorporating the test technologies needed to satisfy weapon system testing and operational requirements, implementing a modern open architecture based on the DoD ATS Architecture Framework to facilitate future upgrades, ensuring that test programs are fully transportable, providing for interoperability with other Services, and reducing ownership and obsolescence costs. An essential element for performing trade-offs and analysis is the CASS Implementation Plan - a Web-based integrated database containing test requirements, station capabilities and configurations, site outfitting requirements, and Test Program Set data. The process for determining the acquisition strategy and for evaluating alternatives is described. The paper concludes with a discussion of major issues addressed during the modernization decision process.