Lockheed Martin and Universal Synaptics to help US DoD address faults

Lockheed Martin has partnered with Universal Synaptics to address intermittent anomalies in electronics and wiring harnesses on military aircraft, ground vehicles and warships.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) spends an estimated $2bn in annual maintenance costs to tackle intermittent fault issues on platforms.

As per the terms of the partnership, Universal Synaptics’ Intermittent Fault Detection technology will be used to help discover random fault anomalies.

Each of the anomalies detected in the electronics of a platform is isolated and provided with maintenance actions, which allow the maintainer to return the unit back into service.

According to Lockheed Martin, the new automated testing technology will allow the platforms to keep operating, reduce sustainment costs and lower repairs and supply support.

The technology is also capable of proactively addressing emerging issues, eliminating follow-on maintenance and enhances platform mission capable rates.

Lockheed Martin enterprise sustainment solutions vice-president Laura Frank said: “This new capability is ground-breaking, and we’re tremendously excited to help the DoD address a challenge costing them billions.

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“Resolving intermittence in electronics is a discriminator for the DoD in achieving an 80% mission capable rate across platforms.”

The partnership will focus on identifying solutions with Universal Synaptics’ Intermittent Fault Detection & Isolation System 2.0 (IFDIS2), the Voyager Intermittent Fault Detector (VIFD) and the associated Interface and Application (IA) technologies.

Currently, these solutions are used to detect intermittent faults on assets such as F-22, F-16, F-35, F/A-18, rotary platforms, UH-60 and land and sea platforms.

Universal Synaptics Corporation president and CEO Ken Anderson said: “This partnership aligns our collective goals of reducing ‘no fault found’ and increasing warfighter readiness by eradicating intermittent faults.

“Together we will define a new era of advanced test capabilities and reset test equipment performance expectations for the DoD Maintenance Enterprise.”