Real Time Missile Health Monitoring System

The objective of this project is to study the feasibility of transferring the RRAPDS technology onto the THAAD missile system. The Remote Readiness Asset Prognostic and Diagnostic System (RRAPDS) is being developed by the U.S. Army Aviation and MissileCommand, Research, Development, and Engineering Center to provide an integrated health/condition monitoring system delivering advanced asset diagnostics/prognostics while tactically deployed, stored, and/or being transported. Smart diagnostics/prognosticsstrategies improve reliability, maintainability, availability and enable predictions of critical system failures initiating supply and maintenance actions streamlining logistics, determining missile/munitions shelf life and providing information needed forreduced sustainment costs.This Phase I effort will leverage off the current RRAPDS design to develop the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Missile System RRAPDS. The THAAD RRAPDS will utilize existing, emerging and future technologies to achieve parametric condition.This effort and these technology advancements enable real-time access of source data and create higher efficiency mission planning/performance.This project and the benefits derived upon a successful Phase II implementation have a strong endorsement (See Attachment 1) by the THAAD Project Office. The results will significantly increase reliability and demonstrate the feasibility of applyingRRAPDS across all MDA systems providing opportunities for reduced operating and support costs. RRAPDS offers the DoD community the capability to detect the elements that cause degradation and facilitates true predictive deterioration analysis. RRAPDS would significantly improve the stockpile management process and improved efficiencies willreduce operation and support costs. Current inspection procedures are largely visually based. Although all stocks may not be exposed to the same environmental extremes, without accurate data, a worst-case scenario must be applied across the board. Highmainte-nance costs are therefore incurred when stocks must be labeled as returns. Through implementation of RRAPDS, history can be obtained for the entire stockpile. An important element of RRAPDS is its tie in to predictive engineering accelerated agingstudies and models with the objective of providing early prediction of whether an item will survive the unique 20+ year life cycle environment of Army material. Predictive engineering provides tools and methods aimed at reducing premature degradationand/or failure of weapon systems in storage or operational use. The key is to provide products that are optimized (i.e. safety, performance and longevity) for an entire life cy-cle thereby reducing the total ownership cost. This is accomplished by (1)ensuring that the product de-sign and production processes will yield robust products insensitive to both storage and use environments, and (2) extending shelf/service life, improving stockpile management through applications of proactive models, andproviding more efficient product evaluation after products are fielded.Through the use of predictive technologies, data collected from RRAPDS will provide designers with a better understanding of an asset's environment when tactically deployed, in storage or in transit. Predictive engineering will reduce the total cost ofownership by helping to identify, eliminate, or mitigate critical design weak links, sensitive processes and operational and storage sensitivities/incompatibilities that precipitate the degradation of systems in storage or operational use. Acceleratedconditioning can be used to simulate the aging phenomenon. Feedback from the field will enable continuous munition reliability and design improvements by assisting in identifying failure mechanisms. Models can be developed that predict shelf/service lifeimpacting future safety, reliability, and performance of weapon systems.