Sustainment of automatic test systems - what 30 years of system integration has taught us

Automatic test system (ATS) sustainment strategies have become critical in recent years due in part to the convergence of commercial and military electronics. The discrepancy between the 4-7 year lifecycle of commercial electronic systems and the expected 25-30 year lifecycle of military electronic systems affects the sustainment of components and the automated systems that test them (DMEA 2002). This paper uses an ATS case study to examine the correspondence between recently proposed military sustainment strategies and test engineering, technologies and processes. The case study spans the last thirty years and suggests best practices for addressing the sustainment of automatic test systems used for military applications.