Solution Approaches from Industry for Flightline of the Future and Next Generation Test Systems

Department of Defense “Maintenance of the Future” capabilities will necessarily nest under the digital transformation banner and require near-term innovative solutions. The required attributes, while essentially common across the Services, will push long-standing, traditional maintenance facilities and practices out of comfort zones. Genuine transformation to agile software/hardware delivery, digital twins, information assured/resilient network architectures, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), and Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) represent both the challenges and opportunities to harness Maintenance for the Future transformation - easier said than done. Maintainers and facilities need tomorrow's answers, today. Fortunately, many are available and adaptable for immediate integration. For example, Air Force Material Command and the Air Force Sustainment Center have shared with industry various overviews of their image for Flightline-of-the-Future and Digital Depots concepts, outlining that the government is in the process of data gathering to shape requirements as well as understand the cutting-edge capabilities of industry. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of capabilities and solutions for what the Flightline of the Future can be and how continuity can be maintained between all maintenance levels (Organizational, Intermediate, and Depot). This paper also explores approaches for Next Generation Test Systems by highlighting current solutions and goals for the future. We focus on breaking from legacy implementations of backplanes and instrumentation as well as new capabilities for ensuring cybersecurity, streamlined processing of Authority to Operate (ATO), MOSA frameworks for interfacing to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and potential schemas for advanced data analysis supporting logistical and predictive methodologies.