On Tuesday, April 20, 2010, at 10:30AM (Media should arrive at base by 10:00AM), officials at NAVAIR Lakehurst will hold a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to note the official opening of the Integrated Diagnostics and Automated Test System (IDATS) Laboratory.

IDATS was formed as a strategic initiative to modernize avionics diagnostics within the Avionics Support Equipment engineering field. The IDATS mission is to develop and implement products that enhance airborne weapons systems supportability and testability.

A lack of advanced avionics diagnostics and prognostics capabilities have been a problem within the Navy and Marine Corps aircraft maintenance business. Approximately 72% of total Navy and Marine Corps maintenance actions are avionics related. Without advanced diagnostics capabilities, false alarms and “cannot duplicate” conditions occur, wasting numerous maintenance-man-hours, increasing aircraft downtime, and increasing logistics and testing costs.

These problems can be readily mitigated and costs reduced if failed components on aircraft can be more quickly and accurately identified and repaired or replaced. Creating a lab capable of identifying and solving these problems in a controlled environment would go a long way toward solving these issues.

The NAVAIR Investment Working Group (IWG) invested significant funding to create the Avionics Laboratories at Lakehurst to increase the avionics diagnostic capabilities provided by IDATS products. The funding allowed for the creation of separate Software and Hardware Laboratories.
These labs will give NAVAIR the ability to support the development and testing of new technologies and off-system maintenance products that will augment at-aircraft diagnostics, allowing the fleet to more effectively and efficiently test, troubleshoot, and repair aircraft. The labs will also replicate the DoD maintenance environment in terms of data flow, and incorporate net-centric connectivity across all levels of maintenance, as well as incorporating flight data and maintenance data databases.