Boeing Awarded U.S. Army Contract for Next Generation Diagnostic Tool

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The U.S. Army has selected Boeing to produce additional Next Generation Automated Test System (NGATS) units with a contract award worth up to $92 million over three years. NGATS is a single, mobile diagnostic tool that provides real-time testing in the field.

NGATS provides immediate solutions, enabling automated fault diagnosis of more than 100 components. NGATS eliminates manual troubleshooting and disassembly of components which reduce labor hours. NGATS aids in avoiding lead times that come with ordering parts and possible depot-level maintenance. One Armored Brigade Combat Team noted NGATS saved more than $26 million in repair costs in five months.

“This award demonstrates that NGATS is becoming the standard for fix effectiveness and readiness in the field, enabling operations in a contested logistics environment,” John Chicoli, director of Boeing Global Services, Vertical Lift and Special Operations, said.

In addition to Army platforms such as the M1A2 SEP V2/V3/V4, M1A1 Abrams tank, M2A3 Bradley, and M1126 Stryker vehicles, these versatile units will be used in 2023 on M109A7 Paladin and the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. A similar test program set is being developed by Boeing to address no evidence of failure issues while maintaining readiness on the AH-64 Apache.

09/13/2022 | Chris Young, Young Engineering Services

Engineers are accustomed to the demanding challenges of designing for miniaturization, cost reduction, cross platform compatibility, and harsh environments. What has proven to be the most painful experience of my career (and for many of my colleagues) is the sheer lack of components from which to build our designs. Development cycles—commercial, industrial, medical, avionics—have been severely impacted, from large enterprise corporations to small design/integration companies. Awareness of the situation is the first step to understanding the underlying problems faced by today’s design engineers industry wide. Here are a few of the situations I have faced in the last year alone.