AWACS

A cost saving, effective test program

Statement by Mr. Dennis Robichaud, formerly the AWACS Support Equipment Program Manager 2007.
US AWACS – a users perspective of the DiagnoSYS PinPoint II system.

We have a large fleet of AWACS aircraft and need to keep them flying. Electronic parts fail, so it’s up to us to make sure we find the causes of the failures, make the repairs and get those items back into the Air Force’s supply system as quickly as possible.

The AWACS legacy Automatic Test Equipment (ATE), the GSM-285, is over 30 years old and beset with DMS (Diminishing Manufacturing Resources) issues, a replacement was required and we needed a plan fast. Re-hosting test programs to any conventional functional Automatic Test Systems (ATS) has become quite cost prohibitive at a time when large budgets no longer exist.

We have more than 150 digital TPS (Test Program Sets) that require re-hosting, and if conventional ATE was the only option, it would cost in excess of $150,000 for each item re-hosted and would take anywhere from eight to 18 months per item re-hosted. With the PinPoint II systems, we’ve turned-out seventy-two TPSs at one-tenth the cost of conventional ATS, and we have accomplished this within 16 Months.

After attending many Automatic Test Equipment trade shows and conferences over the years, one of the vendors that impressed Mr. Dennis Robichaud, the AWACS Support Equipment Program Manager, was DIagnosys and their PinPoint II system. The system was small, reasonably priced, easy to operate and fit nicely within the waning DoD budget environment.

Proving the PinPoint Capability

Mr. Robichaud asked DIagnosys to prove that their system could do the job. DIagnosys was provided with a known good (Condition A) digital SRU (Shop Replaceable Unit) to develop a TPS (Test Program Set). Less than a week later, Mr. Tom Popolo, Director of Military Sales for North America, called and said it was ready. Mr. Robichaud armed with a defective SRU (Condition F) and a GSM-285 printout of the failed component(s) traveled to Florida.

After arrival at DIagnosys-USA, the condition F asset was provided and tested with the newly developed PinPoint TPS. The results from the GSM-285 print out stated R U25 and U26; The results for the PinPoint printout stated R U25 and U26, but individual components test good. After looking at the SRU, a hair-line crack was discover in a land-area that tied a pin of U25 to a pin on U26. Therefore, the GSM-285 repair callout would have been repeated if the components were replaced as directed each time it was re-run to verify the fix. The PinPoint diagnostic result provided the additional detailed information to prevent this.

Evaluating the PinPoint

The AWACS weapons platform utilizes many different technology types, those being; analog, digital, hybrid (analog/digital), Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) and Radio Frequency (RF.) The available budget for this effort was limited, so the AWACS Program Office decided to narrow the test spectrum to digital workload only and expand later if funds became available Mr. Robichaud led a two-phase risk mitigation analysis effort, known as the “AWACS Reduction Total Ownership Cost (RTOC) PinPoint II Program. He contracted with a small engineering firm to test and fully evaluate the PinPoint’s advertised capabilities to ensure it could handle the AWACS workload. During the first phase; a detailed Independent Verification ; Validation (IV; V) of the PinPoint II Tester and its capabilities was performed including test article integration and testing. We then repeated fault detection & isolation (FD&I) tests with comparisons to the legacy tester to generate confidence in the PinPoint’s ability to fix the problems as well as a fully functional conventional test system.

In addition, analysis of the PinPoint’s reverse engineering capability (critical for COTS equipment) was tested and verified. Based on the Phase I analyses results, Mr. Robichaud contracted both commercially and organically for a total of 72 Test Program Sets for the PinPoint systems.

AWACS application of PinPoint systems

The US E-3 Program Office’s risk reduction efforts:

• Assure maximum cost & schedule realism while minimizing technical risks
• Reduce the risk that GSM-285 DMS obsolescence could interrupt the E-3 maintenance/production capability
• Reduce MICAP rates, while increasing aircraft availability (Ao)

Benefits:

• It is better suited for COTS electronic equipment – data rights are extremely expensive
• PinPoint II offers US AWACS a potential Life-cycle cost avoidance in excess of $22M if all digital SRUs have TPS developed (to-date, 72 completed out of 158)
• Greatly accelerates the current rehost schedule for AWACS due to the minimal programming time required.

The AWACS owned PinPoint systems are part of the Official Repair capability at Robins AFB, GA. The majority of AWACS repairs are performed in Building 640 where the four PinPoint II systems are located.

Mr. Robichaud asked DIagnosys to prove that their system could do the job. DIagnosys was provided with a known good (Condition A) digital SRU (Shop Replaceable Unit) to develop a TPS (Test Program Set). Less than a week later, Mr. Tom Popolo, Director of Military Sales for North America, called and said it was ready. Mr. Robichaud armed with a defective SRU (Condition F) and a GSM-285 printout of the failed component(s) traveled to Florida.

After arrival at DIagnosys-USA, the condition F asset was provided and tested with the newly developed PinPoint TPS. The results from the GSM-285 printout stated R & R U25 and U26. The results for the PinPoint printout stated R & R U25 and U26, but individual components test good.

After looking at the SRU, a hair-line crack was discover in a land-area that tied a pin of U25 to a pin on U26. Therefore, the GSM-285 repair callout would have been repeated if the components were replaced as directed each time it was re-run to verify the fix. The PinPoint diagnostic result provided the additional detailed information to prevent this.

Compatiblity across the AWACS Project

The PinPoint would be compatible with ANY of the AWACS aircrafts; NATO, US, Japan, Australia, UK, etc.

The PinPoint can handle many different types of board but its forte is Digital and we all use digital technology in one way or another! Although the US AWACS has a significant number of TPS developed for the PinPoint, the PinPoint is also used for repair on UK and NATO AWACS. The PinPoint is compatible with all DoD programs!

Summary

To-date, AWACS has

• Purchased 4 complete, fully loaded 14 slot PinPoint II systems
• The Return-On-Investment (ROI) is 13.26 or 1,326%
• The Cost avoidance to-date is $11.932M
• Systems are located at Robins AFB, GA. AWACS repair production line
• Sold-Off 72 SRU (Shop Replaceable Unit) Test Programs for PinPoint in 18 months
• AFMETCAL buy-in for local PMEL calibration of the PinPoint II systems
• Received a National Stock Number (NSN) for the complete AWACS system
• NSN for PinPoint II: 6625-01-537-9213
• Part Number for PinPoint II: P2-14144-AWACS
• Investigating PXI as an add-on to enhance the current PinPoint II capabilities and expand its AWACS workload

Mr. Dennis Robichaud, the AWACS Support Equipment Program Manager: The simplicity of the programming for PinPoint allowed us to spread the work out to more people, getting the job done faster. We have a large fleet of AWACS aircraft and need to keep them flying. Electronic parts fail, so its up to us to make sure we find the causes of the failures, make the repairs and get those items back into the Air Forces supply system as quickly as possible.

While the PinPoint II will not handle every test application required by US AWACS, its existing capability produces life-cycle cost savings of millions of dollars, while providing the military with a leading edge technology replacing older, legacy DMS test systems. With the PinPoint II, a smaller, more economical workstation, we have found it nicely satisfies the requirements for testing our workload, taking only a few days to write a test program, versus the months we had originally anticipated. The savings are enormous and we have got a technical capability that is on par with every other system on the market.

PinPoint - an AWACS success story!