Predictive maintenance of military systems based on physical failure models

Preventive maintenance is required to keep critical systems available at reasonable costs. Instead of applying the traditional experience-based approach of statistical analysis of failure data, the present paper proposes to adopt a predictive maintenance policy that relies on detailed knowledge of the physical failure mechanisms. A structured scheme for this approach is presented. Then three case studies from the military, a helicopter, a naval gas turbine and a military vehicle, are used to demonstrate the benefits of this approach.