Operations Support and Sustainment Technologies for Current and Future Aircraft

There is a DoD initiative to transition the maintenance of weapons systems from time-based maintenance to Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+). Certain aviation maintenance is performed on time schedules based on operating hours or a set number of days. The maintenance may or may not be necessary, which can result in unnecessary replacement of parts and expenditure of man-hours. The overarching goal of CBM+ is to set in place maintenance processes and capabilities that improve operational availability and reduce the maintenance burden. Key elements to CBM+ are embedded diagnostics, and prognostic capabilities to determine when maintenance is required. If the Army wants to achieve the CBM+ objectives, S&T investments are needed to develop the diagnostic algorithms; to develop the prognostic algorithms for predicting maintenance; and to mature emerging sensor technologies for rotorcraft systems. The Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) and Bell Helicopter have a technology investment agreement to demonstrate advanced CBM technologies. This paper will present an overview of the Army/Bell program.