The effect of current military maintenance practices and regulations on the implementation of Integrated Vehicle Health Management technology

Abstract

Health monitoring tools can be used to diagnose failures and estimate the remaining useful life of certain components, generating information that can be used to improve the management of logistics and maintenance activities in what is known as Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM). The work presented here analyzes the effect of military practices and regulations on the benefits that can be expected from installing health monitoring tools on military aircraft. The findings on the impact of the military environment on short-term and medium-term goals of maintainers and operators are key to produce an accurate and reliable Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) for IVHM technology. The results of this work are based on information obtained through the use of a questionnaire to gather the knowledge of experts in the field and by studying military standards. Secondary benefits of implementing IVHM have been studied in detail to provide a guide of which are really relevant when working on a CBA and which can be ignored. The transition from current Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) practices included in military standards to the use of continuous health monitoring tools is also discussed. The effect of current outsourcing practices, such as availability contracts, is taken into account in the analysis of these issues.