Consolidated Automated Support System
Written by Commander Bob Stailey
MLF 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 7 (August)
Different Versions Of The Standard System Maintain
The Navy’s Electronic And Avionics Systems.
The Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) is the Navy’s standard automatic test system for electronics and avionics. It is in use throughout the Navy both afloat and ashore at Navy aircraft intermediate maintenance departments and depots, at USMC Marine aviation logistics squadrons, aboard aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and at many other sites, including several foreign countries. CASS supports avionics from the F/A-18, AV-8B, EA-6B, EA-18G, E-2C, T-45, SH-60, H-1, C-2 and V-22. It is also used to support electronics from the LM-2500 engine, the HARM missile, and other diverse weapon systems.
Mainframe CASS is fielded in five versions that are designed for specific testing requirements. The hybrid version is the basic core five-rack station that provides analog and digital test capability. Other CASS configurations add capability to the basic hybrid station to test radio frequency components (CASS RF), high power radar systems (CASS HP), electro-optics (CASS E-O), and communications/navigation/ interrogation systems (CASS CNI).
The reconfigurable transportable CASS (RTCASS) tester, a sixth configuration, was initially developed to support USMC and U.S. Special Operations Command V-22 mobility requirements.
The Marine Corps has since expanded the requirements for RTCASS to support all USMC fixed wing aircraft (F/A-18, AV-8B and EA-6B) and the H-1 and H-53 helicopters. RTCASS will eventually replace mainframe CASS at all USMC maintenance units.
Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training and Support (LMSTS) of Orlando, Fla., won the completion to design and produce CASS. The initial stations were ordered in 1990 and CASS entered the fleet in 1994. CASS was acquired in 12 production lots spanning three blocks, each adding improvements. The last of the 613 production mainframe CASS stations was delivered in December 2003.
The Need to Modernize CAS
Several factors led to the decision in 2005 to modernize mainframe CASS. Since CASS is 85 percent commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), semi-COTS or non-developmental items, originally it was considerably less expensive to develop and procure than the alternative, but CASS is more susceptible to individual instrument or component support problems.
Experience with older legacy testers shows that obsolescence in automatic test equipment is pervasive and not limited just to CASS or COTS testers. History shows that cost spikes to address obsolescence occur at five-year intervals, and that a more major spike occurs near the 15-year point, especially with testers that contain a high percentage of COTS. This data coupled with the actual experience on legacy testers shows that the time is right (19 years since first procurement) to begin a modernization program.
Weapon systems are continually being upgraded to incorporate the latest in war fighting and net-centric technologies. CASS must evolve to remain abreast of or, ideally, ahead of changes being incorporated into weapon systems by adding test capability where needed. Emerging weapon system testing requirements drive the replacement or the upgrade of test instruments to meet higher performance requirements.
A majority of the early CASS stations have seen more than 100,000 hours of use, and as a result are beginning to physically deteriorate. The physical infrastructure of the CASS stations includes components such as wiring, rails, slides, power supplies and card connectors, all of which are subject to corrosion, metal fatigue and normal wear and tear.
While obsolescence has typically been limited to instrumentation, as the CASS stations age, replacement of these physical components incurs greater costs and leads to increased down-time. Therefore, CASS modernization must also upgrade and replace the physical infrastructure.
Since CASS was originally designed in the mid- 1980s, its electrical and software design was based on a closed architecture, which is inflexible and does not permit easy modification or upgrade. Incorporation of an open architecture will enable CASS to be more easily updated in the future.
The CASS Modernization Program
To minimize total ownership costs, PMA-260’s ultimate goal is to have all CASS stations in equivalent configuration based on an open ATS architecture, for current and future test software to be transportable among all configurations, for CASS to be capable of interoperability with other services, for new test technologies to be easily inserted, and for stations to be easily reconfigurable (scalable) to meet specific testing requirements with only the minimum required assets in the stations.
Serious acquisition planning for eCASS began in 2005 with an extensive analysis of alternatives. After a comprehensive review of the alternatives, the clear choice was to modernize CASS through design and development of a new tester that will address the issues mentioned above. ECASS, the name of the program to modernize mainframe CASS stations, will replace all five configurations of mainframe CASS, but not USMC aviation’s RTCASS, which is still in production. ECASS will have the following features:
• Much smaller footprint with more test capability
• Faster run times
• Multi-lingual test environments
• Interoperable with other services’ ATE
• More scalable to needs
• Reduced acquisition and support costs
• “Smarter” diagnostics concepts
ECASS will rehost over 700 existing CASS test program sets, which are used to test and repair 1,100+ weapon system electronics units.
The Way Forward
Once we had selected our approach to modernizing CASS, we began lining up funding and working on the myriad of required acquisition documents. The final request for proposals was released on April 1, 2009, and we received proposals three months later. The source selection team completed their work in February 2010, and a month later we received approval to proceed to Milestone B and award the contract. On March 24, 2010, the eCASS system design and development contract was awarded to LMSTS.
The eCASS development contract includes building engineering development models and low rate initial production stations. This phase will last through FY14, by which time the contractor will have produced 50 eCASS stations. The full rate production milestone decision point will be in FY15 and we will start delivering eCASS stations to the fleet in FY16.
Lockheed Martin has developed a notional graphic of what eCASS may look like.
CAS Performance Based Logistics
The current CASS PBL contract was competitively awarded in November 2008 to LMSTS, the CASS and eCASS prime contractor. Previously, CASS was supported through five different contracts and experienced an average supply material availability (SMA) of under 75 percent.
Over time, a team representing NAVAIR, the Naval Inventory Control Point (NAVICP), and LMSTS developed an innovative strategy to provide all-encompassing support at multiple levels of service, thereby reducing cost while adding capabilities and increasing the number of items supported.
The CASS PBL is a $410 million, seven-year, firm fixed-price contract featuring four different levels of support for fleet, non-fleet, and foreign military sales CASS stations, focusing on availability and on mitigation of obsolescence issues. The PBL supports 191 repairable items and 573 consumable items.
With the current PBL contract for Navy fleet users, LMSTS has continuously far exceeded the required contract metrics, averaging 99 percent SMA for repairable items and 98 percent for consumables. Non-fleet users are well over their goals of 70 percent station availability for basic service and 85 percent availability for full service PBL options.
The primary metric driving the high availability numbers is the 24-hour broad arrow requisition response time and the 72-hour non-broad arrow response for CONUS shipments, both with a receipt time of 48 hours. A broad arrow requisition means that a CASS station is down for the part ordered and is unable to run required test programs.
LMSTS is able to provide this superior level of support at reduced cost through use of a consolidated pool of assets available to support all four service levels. For OCONUS shipments, assets must be shipped within 48 hours. Continuous improvements have been made in the process of shipping OCONUS material and we now see an average receipt time of four days.
Increased component reliability, enhancements to difficult maintenance actions and improved supplier relationships have contributed to the increased SMA and have led to a decrease in material demand fleetwide.
Failure rates per station have consistently decreased over the life of the previous support contract and the current one. The previous contract, CASS Consolidated Service Pool (CSP), was an eight-year agreement with many features of the current PBL contract. However, its pricing had to be renegotiated every year or two as a result of various fluctuations in usage and failures.
This resulted in the contractor’s disincentive to invest in long-term solutions and relationships with suppliers. The current PBL contract, a seven-year firm fixed price vehicle, inherently incentivizes the contractor to improve reliability and reduce failures. The failure rate per station decreased from 15 in 200 0 to the current rate of 7.5 in 2009.
Through innovative management and constant improvement, the CASS support cost decreased over the eight years of the CSP contract while the number of stations and parts supported increased. By combining all requirements and service levels, costs are minimized as the contractor is able to spread fixed costs over a large population.
Three major cost reductions occurred over the CSP period of performance and were integrated into the new PBL contract. We have seen significant reductions in failure rate per station, logistics response time and average cost per repair. Additionally, the annual contract price is based on actual stations in operation so that the Navy pays only for required support.
The projected end of life for CASS was originally 2015, but that has now been extended to 2020. Continuity through the CASS program’s development, production and support phases has been key to obsolescence mitigation. Through the effective use of diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS) meetings, supplier symposiums and reliability improvement initiatives, LMSTS has maintained long-term relationships with the majority of the original CASS suppliers.
Continuously interfacing with suppliers, conducting annual supplier surveys and placing long-term subcontracts has enabled LMSTS to effectively mitigate obsolescence issues. All CASS suppliers, including COTS vendors, are formally surveyed annually to ensure that they will be willing to continue long-term support. To mitigate DMSMS issues where OEMs have elected to discontinue support, LMSTS has taken over organic support of assets or has transitioned repairs to third party suppliers.
They have also initiated lifetime buys to keep parts in reserve. As part of their proactive monitoring for obsolescence, LMSTS developed the Megaboard database, which tracks the status of every CASS asset through 2020 and produces a projected stock depletion date. This process has resulted in an exceptionally successful obsolescence identification and mitigation program.
Improvements to reliability, maintainability and supportability of CASS are inherent features of the CASS PBL. LMSTS captures CASS component failure data for use in failure and trend analyses, corrective action development and verification of corrective action effectiveness. This data is made available to the Navy, and semi-annually the government and contractor meet as the CASS readiness reliability team (RRT).
During the RRT meetings, items identified as having reliability and supportability issues are analyzed and solutions are developed and implemented by LMSTS. One example of success through the RRT is the reduction of induced failures on the CASS digital test unit (DTU) backplane. Removal of the backplane for maintenance is extremely difficult and requires many maintenance man-hours. As a result of investigation by the RRT, a job performance aid (JPA) was developed to demonstrate step-by-step removal. In the two years since the JPA was issued, there have been no maintenance-induced failures on the DTU backplane and demand has decreased from 12 to four per quarter. The significant achievements of the CASS PBL initiative are due solely to the commitment, dedication and teamwork of the entire NAVAIR/NAVICP/LMSTS team. From the very beginning, the contractor has been an integral part of the solution.
Contract negotiations have been based on mutual trust and shared goals. Team interaction is very professional on both sides, and the focus has always been on improving CASS supportability and availability to the benefit of the warfighter.
It is very appropriate that OSD last year selected the CASS PBL for the annual Secretary of Defense system level performance-based logistics award.
With eCASS on the horizon and mainframe CASS being supported through the innovative PBL contract, the fleet warfighter will continue to enjoy superb avionics systems readiness for decades to come. ♦
Commander Bob Stailey is the deputy program manager for CASS, PMA-260, Naval Air Systems Command.
