Description
Organization: NAVAIR
Team Name: Reconfigurable Transportable Consolidated Automated Support System (RTCASS)
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Commercial and Non Developmental Items (CANDI), Financial Management, Integrated Digital Environment (IDE), Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), Open Systems, Partnering, Performance Specs and Standards, Specifications and Standards
Description:
The Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) is the Navy's standard Automatic Test System and has been designated by DoD as a DoD ATS Family (http://dodats.osd.mil). With a total life cycle budget of $2.6B for ATE and TPS, CASS is the largest DoD ATS program ever, and will yield Total Ownership Cost reductions of $1.53B.
By 2006, there will be nearly 700 CASS stations in use supporting almost 2,000 electronics and avionics assemblies. The four configurations of CASS (Hybrid, Electro-Optics, High Power and Radio-Frequency) contain either five or six racks of test instruments and power supplies fully integrated into a complete test system. The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin Information Systems (LMIS).
In April 1995 the Joint Multi-Mission Vertical Lift Aircraft (JMVX) ORD was approved and stated that organizational and intermediate level support equipment must be of modular design for two-man lift and transportable as internal cargo aboard the JMVX (V-22) aircraft for strategic and tactical mobility. Since CASS stations are fixed in height and width (6-feet tall, 19-inches wide), the CASS program began exploring concepts to satisfy this unique V-22 requirement. The requirements for a downsized CASS were subsequently solidified in a meeting among HQ USMC, USSOCOM, the two operators of the V-22, and PMA260.
Development of RTCASS:
During the 1996 – 1997 timeframe, INDRA DTD based in Madrid, Spain, was talking with LMIS about a CASS-compatible tester in a portable configuration. INDRA was interested because the government of Spain has purchased many US Navy systems including the F/A-18, AV-8B, SH-60 LAMPS, P-3C, Harpoon, Sidewinder, Sparrow, Evolved Sea Sparrow, Harm, FFG-7, and Aegis Combat System. LMIS brought all three parties together to determine if a solution could be developed which would satisfy the needs of both INDRA and DoD. After several discussions, the Reconfigurable Transportable Consolidated Automated Support System (RTCASS) Team was formed and soon developed an innovative cooperative agreement among LMIS, NAVAIR, and INDRA to jointly undertake the RTCASS development effort. An especially innovative funding arrangement was implemented whereby all three parties agreed to share equally in the cost of development. Each partner’s share was $2M plus some engineering and technical man-hours; this approach saved each company at least $4M, thereby giving a 3:1 payback for the R&D invested. Since R&D funds are scarce in the support equipment arena, this was of significance in that it permitted R&D to continue on other high priority Navy SE projects.
RTCASS Design Features
RTCASS consists of nine enclosures which are arranged in a three by three-high matrix. Each enclosure is ruggedized to allow for safe transportability. Physical connections to adjacent enclosures use innovative blind mate floating connectors and connector cross-rods. No external cables are required between the enclosures except for peripheral and ancillary equipment. The peripheral hardware, such as the keyboard, trackball/mouse, printer, and display are transported in a separate ruggedized container. The display is capable of being mounted on the side of the nine-box configuration or set upon the platform tabletop.
RTCASS can be easily reconfigured for various mission roles. The design facilitates portability, however the open hardware architecture supports rack-mounted or fixed installation uses as well. From a capabilities standpoint, the system may be configured for analog testing requiring only 2 or 3 enclosures, or up to 9 enclosures for the RF configuration that is virtually equivalent to a full-sized CASS RF station. The ability to reconfigure the system allows for packaging and deployment of the most cost effective test capability.
The RTCASS architecture and open system design facilitates rehost of test programs to and from mainframe CASS.
RTCASS Acquisition Status
RTCASS has completed its systems requirements review, engineering requirements review and engineering design review. The RTCASS prototype is now in station integration.
Between 2001 and 2004, 48 RTCASS systems will be procured to support the USMC’s V-22s, and 14 systems will be procured to support USSOCOM. As part of RTCASS development testing, in March 2000, three AV-8B test programs will be rehosted to RTCASS. If this test is successful and the effort proves cost effective, the AV-8B program may rehost more test programs on RTCASS to increase support aboard the L-Class ships.
The European Eurofighter Consortium’s selection of Indra as the Automatic Maintenance Systems provider for the Eurofighter project will enable RTCASS to become a truly multinational support solution.
The Spanish Navy had previously decided not to use CASS to support their carrier-based AV-8Bs because of the size of the mainframe CASS stations. Now that RTCASS is a reality, they are re-evaluating this option as well as support for their SH-60 LAMPS helicopters. Additionally, the Spanish Air Force has decided to support their F/A-18s on RTCASS. INDRA is awaiting a contract to rehost the F/A-18’s AIRSIM and HTS to RTCASS. If this occurs, the USMC could have an option to support their F/A-18s on either RTCASS or CASS, depending on which solution would provide the lowest Total Ownership Costs for a given scenario.
The Spanish Ministry of Defense has recently selected RTCASS to be the standard automatic tester through the entire MOD.
Significant Achievements
Through the unique cooperative teaming arrangement, the Navy program is enjoying significant savings in development costs since INDRA and LMIS will provide two-thirds of these costs. In the field, using RTCASS under a deployable I-level concept as the USMC’s V-22 support solution will yield $125M life cycle savings over an alternative O-to-D scenario. For USSOCOM, RTCASS brings a LCC savings of $87.5M over the next lower cost alternative tester.
From the very first formative RTCASS Team meeting, the goal has been to accelerate the entire development and fielding process. The Team determined that through judicious planning, only one prototype and two pre-production RTCASS stations would be required to meet all schedule requirements such as TechEval, OpEval and test program development. Further, test program development is typically the critical path for fielding support capability. By working diligently to ensure that test programs are in fact transportable between RTCASS and mainframe CASS, test programs can be developed on existing CASS stations well before the first production RTCASS is even ordered. Through dove-tailing the delivery of the RTCASS with its test program software, the V-22 fleet will have support in place on the day the first station is delivered. This approach will serve as a trailblazer for subsequent tester and test program acquisitions.
The RTCASS Team has consciously worked hard to strengthen the joint commercial and defense industrial base through the cooperative agreement. Care had to be taken since INDRA is a non-US company, but through the diligent efforts of FMS, legal and contracts offices, all three parties have improved their business and technological bases.
From the outset, the RTCASS team has structured an accelerated and simplified acquisition process. This was especially challenging given not only the cutting edge testing technology being used, but also the diversity of the Team members (three military Services, a major US corporation, and a foreign company). The Team was empowered in its charter to do “whatever it takes” to streamline the acquisition process. As a result, RTCASS will be in active use in just over three years from the first Team meeting; a process which takes up to 10 years for a typical SE acquisition.
The RTCASS Team set out to provide the V-22 with a support solution that featured the lowest possible Total Ownership Costs. Invaluable to accomplishing this objective were the application of recent acquisition reform initiatives such as performance-based specification contracting, electronic data interchange, minimizing the application of specifications and standards, reliance on COTS, implementing an open architecture to facilitate interoperability and transportability, optimized oversight and review, and using best acquisition practices. As one example, under the innovative Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) approach, engineers, suppliers, and manufacturers are working together to improve the RTCASS product. Many small changes developed through DFMA (such as reducing the number of discrete cables from 381 to 177) will have large payoffs in terms of life cycle costs.
