USAF to merge aircraft maintenance systems

The US Air Force has elected to merge a number of similar aircraft maintenance information technology systems into a single system to be developed and maintained within the DISA Computing Ecosystem.

DISA’s Core Automated Maintenance System for Mobility (CAMS-FM) application will serve as the force’s single maintenance information system (MIS), for the management of all base level, aircraft sortie production activities.

CAMS-FM will replace IT systems including the Integrated Maintenance Data System - combat air force MIS for bombers, fighters and nuclear missiles; Reliability, Availability, Maintainability for Pods – tracks the effectiveness of pod devices that are externally mounted on a fixed wing or rotary wing aircraft, providing enhanced capabilities; and the Enhanced Maintenance Operations Center – an aircraft ramp situational tool.

CAMS-FM currently facilitates aircraft launch and recovery, and documents the status and availability of approximately 1,200 cargo and in-flight refuelling aircraft for the air force. Under this effort the air force plans to migrate approximately 5,000 additional fighter and bomber aircraft into CAMS-FM within five years.

Paul Crumbliss, deputy chief, DISA’s Computing Ecosystem, said: ‘DISA Computing Ecosystem provides software design, application development, testing and implementation of all software associated with CAMS-FM using a lightweight, agile project management framework called Scrum. This framework has been used to develop capabilities that are key to air force and US Transportation Command functions worldwide.’

This migration process will also allow the air force to standardise training requirements for field-level maintenance activities.