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NAVAIR opens avionics diagnostic lab

  • Published
  • By Thomas Worsdale
  • Naval Air Systems Command Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Naval Air Systems Command held a ribbon cutting ceremony in celebration of the official opening of the Integrated Diagnostics and Automated Test System laboratory April 20 here.

IDATS was formed as a strategic initiative to modernize avionics diagnostics within the avionics support equipment engineering field. The IDATS mission is to develop and implement products that enhance airborne weapons systems supportability and testability.

A lack of advanced avionics diagnostics and prognostics capabilities have been a problem within the Navy and Marine Corps aircraft maintenance business. Approximately 72 percent of total Navy and Marine Corps maintenance actions are avionics related. Without advanced diagnostics capabilities, false alarms and "cannot duplicate" conditions occur, wasting numerous maintenance man hours, increasing aircraft downtime and increasing logistics and testing costs.

These problems can be readily mitigated and costs reduced if failed components on aircraft are more quickly and accurately identified and repaired or replaced. Creating a lab capable of identifying and solving these problems in a controlled environment would go a long way toward solving these issues.

The NAVAIR Investment Working Group invested significant funding to create the Avionics Laboratories at Lakehurst to increase the avionics diagnostic capabilities provided by IDATS products. The funding allowed for the creation of separate Software and Hardware Laboratories.

These labs will give NAVAIR the ability to support the development and testing of new technologies and off-system maintenance products to augment at-aircraft diagnostics, allowing the fleet to more effectively and efficiently test, troubleshoot and repair aircraft. The labs will also replicate the Department of Defense maintenance environment in terms of data flow, incorporate net-centric connectivity across all levels of maintenance and as incorporate flight data and maintenance databases.