Prognostics for Combat Systems of the Future

Maintenance and repair of weapons systems is an ever-increasing part of the total cost. The time to repair faults can also have a major impact on system availability. Prediction of faults before they occur allows removal of potentially faulty units or the pre- positioning of spares to allow quick repairs at minimal cost. Many new weapon system procurements include requirements to predict failures in subsystems before they actually occur through the use of prognostic techniques. This is a difficult task requiring innovative solutions.