One of the biggest concerns of the military is the maintenance of their equipment. Just like the rigorous training that the army puts its soldiers through, in order to make sure that they are prepared, they have always done the same with their equipment, in order to make sure everything and everyone is ready when they are called upon.

This maintenance has even been even more important in the field of aviation, since if aviation equipment fails, people’s lives are in danger. Through the years there have many different versions of army maintenance as it pertains to the aviation equipment. In the early days it was called corrective maintenance, or fix it when it breaks.

This system had its limitations, as the only way to know when something needed fixed was after it failed. Next came preventative maintenance, which was constantly running through check lists to look for things that are about to fail, this improved the ability to detect problems before a piece of equipment was being used, however it was still not exactly efficient.

The next form of army maintenance was the latest and most efficient and that is called Time Before Overhaul, which meant that equipment was not only constantly checked but certain high wear equipment would be replaced based on manufacturers recommendations.

This meant that all equipment was in good working condition, however this was very labor intensive and it also caused aviation equipment to be offline for repairs at a very high rate.

Today there is a new type of maintenance system that is not only being tested, but is showing promise as the way maintenance will be performed moving into the future and that is Condition Based Maintenance or CBM, with this maintenance system aviation equipment has test run using newly available technologies that can detect when something actually needs fixed.

CBM is changing not only the amount of labor needed to keep aircraft in good working condition, but it also reduces the amount of money that is needed for labor and replacement parts. This system makes aircraft as battle ready as possible and there is no more need to replace parts till they have actually lasted for their entire lifespan.

As army maintenance improves the equipment that the soldiers depend on for their missions is becoming more and more reliable. These simple improvements based on using the available technologies, is changing the face of the military. Nothing could be better than making sure this important equipment is always ready for action.