Moving Toward a DoD Automatic Test System Standard

A 1994 study identified that between 1980 and 1992, the services spent approximately $50 billion on automatic test systems (ATS). Controlling proliferation of ATS became the DoD's goal and led to policy which stated that DoD programs shall select ATS families to meet all ATS acquisition needs, and that introduction of unique ATS must be minimized. Beginning in 1996, DoD and industry together began work toward an open architecture for ATS by identifying the set of critical interfaces or key elements for which standards needed to be defined. Shortly afterward, the Joint Service Nxtest integrated program team began efforts toward evolving test technologies for insertion into DoD ATS. The original architecture has evolved into the DoD ATS framework which is published in the defense information technology standards registry. The joint service ATS framework working group, under the NxTest IPT, is accelerating efforts toward completing the framework. Cooperation between the services and industry has reached new levels with active participation in working groups and standards development bodies. In addition to demonstrating emerging test technologies, the agile rapid global combat support (ARGCS) advance concept technology demonstration project is helping to mature the ATS framework. When the ATS framework is completed and DoD has a truly open architecture for ATS, it is anticipated that DoD's ATS policy may shift from a hardware (families and COTS) perspective to a situation wherein any tester that fully implements the ATS framework must satisfy DoD's ATS-related goals, and the actual hardware used becomes less important.