Navy to install new automated testing system

Lockheed Martin Corp. will design and install a new testing support system for the Navy under an $83 million contract.

Specifically, the defense contractor will design, develop, fabricate, integrate and test the Electronic Consolidated Automated Support System, known as eCASS.

The eCASS upgrade will replace the current Consolidated Automated Support System, or CASS, test equipment designed and built in the 1980s and fielded in the early 1990s, according to a Lockheed statement released today.

eCASS will enable fleet aircraft maintenance personnel to keep aircraft mission-ready at the most affordable life cycle cost.

Navy and Marine Corps personnel use test program sets to troubleshoot and repair assemblies at sea or ashore, allowing them to repair units and return equipment to readiness status quickly and efficiently, the statement explained.

Test program sets consist of hardware, diagnostic software, data and documentation capable of performing verification, alignment, adjustment, fault detection and isolation and interface adapters that connect with CASS.

eCASS, while compatible with the current CASS software, will also be able to run tests from new systems such as the F-35. It will have the ability to be “net-ready” in that it can tie into Navy networks and manage data and information, according to the Lockheed statement.

Lockheed Martin’s design and development contract also provides for the procurement of 14 engineering development models during the system design and development phase of the contract.

Lockheed Martin is based in Bethesda, Md.