SOFWERX, in collaboration with USSOCOM Program Executive Office – Rotary Wing (PEO-RW) and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) will host a Collaboration Event on 04 December, 2023, to explore how technology can be leveraged to achieve improved maintenance outcomes by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance personnel.
The 160th SOAR currently provides its maintenance personnel a technical manual that is, at its core, a legacy paper maintenance manual converted to a PDF. The manual is inflexible, difficult to change, and often lags months or years behind the “current operational truth.” Soldiers currently can only access the technical manual through heavy, cumbersome laptop computers or are forced to print work packages for work on the aircraft. As the Regiment emerges from 20 years of sustained combat operations, the well of combat experience has begun to run dry. As the average experience level of the organization decreases, the complexity faced by the maintenance enterprise continues to increase. New technology, rapid fielding, and diverging fleet configuration present a robust challenge to the enterprise. Maintenance, in accordance with the technical manual, is the cornerstone of a successful maintenance program. As the Regiment’s maintenance apparatus negotiates these dual challenges of decreasing experience and increasing complexity, the need to re-examine this foundational technology becomes readily apparent.
The command seeks to identify software and hardware solutions to provide maintenance personnel increased access to technical information. Potential solutions may include augmented reality and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP) knowledge management tools to achieve improved maintenance outcomes at the user level.
Request to Attend NLT 25 October 2023 11:59 PM ET at events.sofwerx.org/rotary.