A Common Core PXI Test Platform for Factory and Depot Applications

The test requirements for the manufacturing and maintenance of military - aerospace components, subsystems, and systems should ideally be addressed by a common test platform. The ability to leverage test programs, fixturing, test resources and even product knowledge all points to the use of a common core platform. However, more often than not, the requirements for supporting and maintaining these assemblies results in specifying and developing completely different test solutions- resulting in higher capital and maintenance expenditures for deployed systems and components. This paper will review how one can successfully address the test needs associated with both the manufacture and maintenance of systems and components - based on a common core solution and built around the PXI architecture, which can successfully address both the performance and economics aspects of test. The paper will also present a real world example of how this strategy has been successfully implemented on a current weapons system program.