Raytheon and Uptake partner to provide predictive maintenance to U.S. Marine M88 recovery vehicles
Raytheon has announced that it will partner with Uptake, a specialist in the development of industrial-use artificial intelligence software, to bring predictive maintenance capabilities to deployed U.S. Marine Corps teams using M88 armored recovery vehicles.
The U.S. defence industry giant says that this partnership will bring its technical ability for onboard recording, processing and transfer of large quantities of sensitive data over secure Wi-Fi to the table, while Uptake brings a suite of advanced artificial intelligence software that offers actionable insights at the component level.
“Commanders should have data-driven confidence that the vehicles chosen for a critical operation are not trending toward an issue right when it matters the most,” said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business. “These kinds of decisions don’t just save dollars and ensure mission success– they save lives.”
Raytheon’s news release notes that “current maintenance and logistics decisions are event based or timeline driven, but militaries are increasingly using advanced data analytics and condition-based monitoring to identify problems and provide alerts before they happen.”
It adds that for Marines using the M88, this proposed proactive approach will “ensure predictive maintenance strategies are in place to improve long-term vehicle health and maximise availability.”
Australia is currently operating 13 M88A2 HERCULES (Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lifting Extraction System) armoured recovery vehicles.
As APDR has reported before, Defence is planning to acquire an unspecified number of additional M88A2 HERCULES (Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lifting Extraction System) ARVs to add to its current fleet, and LAND 907 Phase 2 will acquire an armoured engineering capability for the ADF that addresses four capability roles: assault breaching, armoured bridge launching, armoured engineering and armoured recovery.
