U.S. Navy Photo Marine One takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) after a visit from President George W. Bush. The standardized NTAB system is active and in use by U.S. Presidential Helicopter.

AIRSpeed-modified deficiency-report tracker is now saving money for VH-71 Presidential helo.

ACAT 1 includes programs such as F⁄A-18 Super Hornet, VH-71 Presidential Helicopter, Joint Strike Fighter and Fire Scout UAV.

Any ACAT I program that adopts the AIRSpeed-modified application - the Deficiency and Reports Tracking System (DARTS) - will save an estimated $70,000 the first year, with a potential savings of $414,000 over 10 years, according to Matt South, the Black Belt for the AIRSpeed project convened to standardize ACAT I programs' deficiency reports (DR).

“These savings are expressed in the terms of money not otherwise spent,“ South said. “Programs do not need to spend as much money to perform DR functions now that a standardized DR process exists.“

South, who is lead test engineer for Unmanned Systems, Point Mugu, Calif., said his team's modified version of DARTS could also help other non-ACAT I programs realize similar savings. And it could keep track of other aspects of a test and evaluation program as well, he said, such as reports of test results and other engineering technical reports.

“DARTS has opened the door for systems to allow reports of any kind, not just DRs,“ said Jill Veit, E-6B platform operations coordinator for NAVAIR’s Avionics Engineering Branch. Veit created the original DARTS for the E-6B office by modifying a commercial-off-the-shelf program.

With the standardization of DARTS as a DR tool for the category I acquisition programs, the Integrated Systems Evaluation, Experimentation & Test Department, will make sure it's used to track deficiency reports in all future large T&E programs, ACAT I and non-ACAT I alike.

The ACAT I Black Belt project was initiated because each program was spending money to develop its own standardized deficiency reporting system, when all shared the same basic problem, South said. Multiple systems were performing the same task, paid for repeatedly by several programs.

The Black Belt project aimed to determine the best system for standardizing deficiency reporting. “We reviewed all the processes that were available to us, and there were several, and determined, based on the voice of customer and AIRSpeed analysis which would best serve the task and the community,“ South said.

The team members ultimately selected DARTS as the system they wanted to adapt for ACAT I programs. They modified it with criteria from the NAVAIR Technical Assurance Board.

The NTAB criteria provide a mechanism for documenting and distributing deficiencies concurrent with program test activities. The information gives squadron and PMA managers insight into the maturity and well being of equipment under test.

“To verify proper operations, an NTAB pilot simulation was run, errors were fixed and regression tests were performed to ensure the processes were in control,“ South said. “Now the standardized NTAB system is active and in use by Fire Scout and Presidential Helicopter.“

Cost savings calculated for the AIRSpeed-modified DARTS were based on a projected first year setup cost of $25,795 instead of the current $96,192 - a savings of more than $70,000. After the first year, costs would drop to an estimated $13,155 annually instead of the current $59,444 - a savings of over $46,000 per year.

Based on those annual estimates, savings over the life of a program would be substantial. T&E programs can run for two years or 10 years. The savings for a two-year program would amount to $116,000 - $70,000 for the first year and $46,000 for the second. Savings for a 10-year program would total $414,000 - $70,000 initially, plus $46,000 over each of the remaining nine years.

“AIRSpeed provides an opportunity for the work force to make improvements to issues that hinder our efforts to support the war fighter,“ South said.