Proactive Obsolescence Management Methods for C5ISR Systems: Insights from Practitioners

Obsolescence is a significant challenge for the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) community. Obsolescence can negatively affect a C5ISR system’s cost, schedule, performance, and readiness. This article examines the challenge of obsolescence for C5ISR systems by focusing on the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and their industry partners. Data were gathered by conducting interviews with 20 individuals who had experience with C5ISR systems: 10 government Army civilians and 10 industry partner employees. The objective of this study is to synthesize insights from the experiences of government and industry practitioners that mitigate diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS) challenges. The obsolescence mitigation areas described in this article include proactive and reactive obsolescence mitigation, obsolescence mitigation methods, opportunities for alternative components and planned improvements, the importance of DMSMS contracting language, and obsolescence management practices to avoid. This article also offers approaches grounded in practitioner experiences to mitigate obsolescence through a preliminary proactive obsolescence management model, risk mitigation framework, and metrics. The combination of the obsolescence mitigation approaches discussed in this article has the potential to achieve greater system readiness, more availability, better maintainability, and lower costs for C5ISR systems.