The use of IEEE standards to develop test program sets to support in-service legacy equipment

Abstract

This paper will outline the issues around the testing of Military equipment that has had its out of service date extended beyond the life of the supporting test equipment and associated Test Program Sets. The issues discussed will include a lack of documentation relating to the equipment in question, unsupported software platforms and undocumented test procedures. The paper will describe a case study in which the advantages of Purpose Automatic Test Equipment where shown in order to secure the funding to invest in updating and maintaining new, IEEE standards compliant, Test Program Sets. The amount and quality of data available will also be explored to determine how much is actually required to generate good Test Program Sets. Two examples will be used to describe projects where differing amounts of data have been supplied, and how highly experienced staff can create Test Program Sets that can significantly reduce the cost of supporting in-service equipment, to therefore an operational capability. It will also be shown, using a real world example, how managing the end of life of legacy equipment can be made cost effective by using General Purpose Automatic Test Equipment, standardising the processes and software and using code and method re-use to realise cost savings over doing nothing or creating a bespoke solution. In conclusions it will be shown how a robust development process, in conjunction with the application of IEEE standards such as ATML and IEEE-1641 Signal and Test Definition can help extend the in-service life of military equipment to meet to demands of current and near future operations.