Initial situation:
Usage profiles of military land vehicles differ fundamentally from those of civil vehicles due to their utilization for special tasks such as national defense, disaster assistance and peacekeeping operations. Operation life is higher, mileage tends to be much lower and the characteristics of the areas of application range from first class roads to cross country drives. The usage history is documented in multiple data bases partly in paper form which impedes a consistent, transparent and realistic capture of the true usage of an individual land vehicle. Effects of non-usage (e.g. material degradation, deterioration in storage, etc.) of the vehicles are not surveyed. Important aspects of fleet management, such as life cycle costing, maintenance planning and disposition planning are currently based on experience and empirical values and therefore error prone.

Objectives and Innovation:
The objective is a transparent and realistic capturing of the usage profile of military land vehicles based on data from sensors and the vehicle control system. Building on this data, a realistic calculation of consequential costs of operations and maintenance as well as the dynamic adjustment of life cycle costs during operation life shall be obtained. Based on the usage profile a data driven decision support system for maintenance planning will be developed. Furthermore, a disposition model will be developed, to optimize the distribution and supply of vehicles and spare parts according to military and economic aspects.

Targeted results and findings:The desired result is a realistic and transparent usage profile of the examined vehicles. On that basis, the following results are expected:

• Realistic calculation of the consequential costs of operation and maintenance as well as dynamic adjustment of the life cycle costs during the operational life.
• Increase of the availability of the system by initiating predictive maintenance measures and reduction of unplanned outages
• Optimization of the availability of vehicles and spare parts through a disposition calculation based on area, time and military aspects