Evaluation Engineering - 8

MIL/AERO TEST

Marvin Test Solutions' MTS-209 Common
Armament Test Set.

maintainers to launch sorties without the
benefit of new, technologically enhanced
test sets. Selecting a maintenance test
solution provider that understands the
operational requirements of advanced
weapons and armament is critical. The
limited funding available to procure advanced maintenance test support equipment makes it imperative that an aerospace test & measurement company be
involved. Aerospace test & measurement
companies understand the necessity to
provide support for the life of the SLEP'd
aircraft fleet's new test equipment-if
procured-as there will typically not be
additional funding available, once purchased to upgrade or replace the test
sets that non-aerospace test companies
allow to become obsolete soon after they
are fielded."

Sponsored by

or latent defects. The trickle-down effect
to field test is higher performance instrumentation with greater spectral purity,
more precise amplitude/phase readouts,
faster automated measurements, and provisions to simulate more crowded spectrums for interference issues. There are
additional practical test issues to consider
in the field as it pertains to cables, connectors, antennas, and other sources of
environmental contamination. Quickly
finding and repairing defect mechanisms
is becoming more complex and timeconsuming-not just in the depot-but
also field (ideally using the same automation software). With that said, providing
portable, easy-to-use, and rugged tools
across various user scenarios also represents a key challenge to ensuring secure
communications."
Amplifier
Research's Radiated
Immunity Test System.

8

EVALUATION ENGINEERING AUGUST 2019

Butler, National Instruments: "Digital
transformation-the need to acquire,
process, store and analyze extremely large
amounts of data to extract insights that
will improve operational efficiency, as well
as the need to connect and remotely manage dozens-to potentially thousands-of
test assets and systems across the enterprise. This introduces challenges in terms
of security, process management, and
cross functional collaboration."
Barnard, Tektronix: "All Mil/Aero test
vendors face the challenge of presenting
next-generation testing capabilities-
higher bandwidths, sharper software,
more advanced triggers, etc.-to Mil/Aero
customers in a product architecture that
is going to be available for program support over a long period of time; sometimes
as much as a decade or more."

Astronics Test Systems' ATS-3100PXI
Integration Platform.

Vondran, Astronics: "Using tactical radios as an example, support for secure
modulation waveforms impose higher
performance prerequisites on the requisite test architecture. To complicate
matters, tactical radios also trend for
more test data to identify outliers and/

Colombo, ANSYS: "There are many challenges. One is integration, as we are moving from a siloed view of the assets' lifecycle to a more integrated one. Digital and
physical testing will complement each
other much more, both concurring to assets' validation and certification. It's important to understand and embrace this
revolution because it offers huge growth
opportunities for those who will be able
to operate in partnership."

Amplifier Research: "One of the most
challenging aspects of Mil/Aero testing
is achieving the required radiated immunity field strengths. These sectors often
require the highest field strengths as the
equipment under test are used in the most
severe environments. When it comes to
generating these required extreme field
strengths, the equipment required to do
so are often pushing the electrical and
physical boundaries of available technology. Enormous amounts of power are
required to be delivered to antennas to
generate the thousands of volts per meter
required by Mil/Aero test standards. The
amplifiers that generate this power are
significant undertakings."

Eijkelenburg, Pacific Power Source: "One
of the biggest challenges our Mil/Aero customers face is the need to support existing
test platforms much longer than originally
planned. Test platforms are not being replaced in a timely matter, due to budget
constraints. This is shifting increased
focus from developing new test systems
to upgrading and supporting existing aging testers. As a result, T&M equipment
manufacturers are asked to support their
products for long periods of time-far longer than would be the case for industrial
or commercial use test systems."
Stasonis, Pickering: "Many Mil/Aero test
systems need to migrate from existing
obsolete VXI-based test systems to modern, well-supported platforms such as PXI
and LXI. We have a cross reference chart
on our web site that offers PXI-based
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Evaluation Engineering

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