Investigation of Substituting Class S Parts for Class B Parts in Air Force Electronics Systems

摘要

The current emphasis on increasing the Air Force's war-fighting capability has pushed reliability to the fore-front. One successful method used to increase the reliability of satellite systems is the use of expensive, but highly reliable, class S electronic parts as opposed to the class B parts normally used in avionics and ground electronic systems. Using MIL-HDBK-217D, the author predicted range of potential gains in reliability caused by substituting class S parts for class B parts for five avionics systems. Then the cost versus quantity relationship was used to calculate potential costs for quantity buys of class S parts. MITRE's Milstar life cycle cost (LCC) model was used to calculate the change in LCC due to the higher reliabilities and new acquisition costs. The research found that significant LCC savings were possible when class S parts were substituted for class B parts.