Staying Mission Ready: The Importance and Value of Extending Legacy Equipment Lifecycles in Critical Defense Programs
In previous articles, we’ve discussed the massive, costly impact that electronics obsolescence has on Defense programs. Few industries feel the effects of this problem the way that Defense manufacturers, contractors, and programs experience it. Many of the electronic systems deployed for use in these applications will be needed for ten years or more, often upwards of twenty–long beyond when the individual parts of the system will be discontinued by their manufacturers.
Why Defense in Particular
Defense programs are typically applications where upgrading or refreshing the system requires a significant investment of time and energy due to lengthy re-certification and budget approvals, where the system has to be mission ready at all times, and programs are being pressured to look plan further ahead to deal with the supply chain problems caused by electronics obsolescence. This is an industry where legacy equipment manufacturing and support is incredibly valuable and important.
Electronic component obsolescence and decreasing customer demand eventually result in discontinued CCAs–which in turn disrupts anyone downstream of the supply chain who needs those circuit cards long after the end of life (EOL) announcement. Those Defense programs are left with a tough choice: try to find a new source for the CCAs, or get funding for a potentially expensive tech refresh or design upgrade. Alternate sources that are not authorized by the OEM of the circuit card present risks of authenticity, counterfeits, and damage due to incorrect storage or other causes. Design changes and upgrades may take a very long time to approve, certify, and implement.
Legacy equipment manufacturers offer a different, more sustainable strategy for these critical Defense programs.
Keeping Legacy Equipment Mission Ready
Legacy equipment manufacturers (LEMs) like GDCA don’t just drag out the lifespan of old, obsolete electronics. We look to the future and help these programs support them until they don’t need the equipment, whether the system is being retired or upgraded. Many of these systems aren’t actually that old after all–technology is just advancing so quickly that the programs can’t feasibly keep up without investing massive amounts of time and money.
GDCA works with our clients to determine exactly how many parts they’ll need, what individual components are at risk of obsolescence and what impact they’ll have, and then we provide our clients with options. This could be anything from manufacturing the parts ourselves to finding new, reliable sources until the system can be upgraded, or connecting with the OEM for further support of the products. We keep their systems mission ready without those high upgrade costs or unreliable sources for components.
