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Report: Military has been waiting for things to break to fix them, not using suggested 'predictive maintenance'

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says data-driven repairs could lead to cost-savings, fewer accidents and overall better readiness.

WASHINGTON — When it comes to weapon systems maintenance, providing battle-ready planes, ships and ground combat systems costs taxpayers $90 billion a year.

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says using what's called "predictive maintenance" based on data analysis -- instead of waiting until things to fail to fix them -- could lead to cost savings, fewer accidents and better military readiness.

"In many cases, the military services are relying on things to break before they replace them," sad GAO Defense Capabilities and Management Team Director Diana Maurer.

"And predictive maintenance is an alternative approach which takes advantage of sensors and advanced data analytics and to some extent, AI, to predict when something will fail, so they can take it off the airplane or tank or helicopter of a ship before it actually causes critical failure," she said.

The Department of Defense told the military services to begin using predictive maintenance 20 years ago, but the GAO says, the branches "made limited progress until recently."

"There's potential benefits that we fear may be left by the wayside simply by nor even considering the use, or, greater use of predictive maintenance," Maurer said.

As of June 2022, the Norfolk-based guided missile destroyer USS Mason is the only vessel in the 293-ship fleet that has tested predictive maintenance concepts and evaluated the responses of the ship's crew.

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