February 29, 2008:
As weapons become more complex, more work has
gone into making them less expensive to maintain. That sounds contradictory,
but not when you consider how complex the automobile has become, without a
similar increase in maintenance costs. The key is the use of sensors to monitor
the many components. The same technology is being applied to military
equipment. Not just the electronic stuff, but also key structural components on
tanks and aircraft. By using sensors on metal components, the army found they
could skip a lot of maintenance that required the partial disassembly of
helicopters. During the last two years, more sensors were placed on over 500
helicopters and aircraft. The result was, on average, each aircraft required 20
fewer hours of maintenance, and was down about 6 fewer hours because of
unanticipated maintenance problems.
Aircraft components are particularly
prone to unexpected failure in wartime. In wartime, aircraft, and armored
vehicles, are operated in a much more stressful manner. The normal standards
for when to closely check a component, are based on peacetime use, which is a
lot more predictable. In peacetime, pilots and tank drivers are discouraged, or
even forbidden, from undertaking some common wartime moves. As a result, the
new use of component sensors is expected to save lives in wartime, by warning
when a component is close to failure, if the aircraft undergoes some violent
maneuvers.
The sensors make the weapons more
expensive, but their use in commercial equipment, where they ultimately save
money by cutting maintenance needs, or warning of possible failure, has
convinced the military that giving their weapons this form of self-awareness is
actually the less expensive way to go.