Réparation et MCO

Maintenance, a crucial issue for the armed forces

The army’s project to restructure its in-service vehicle support includes the outsourcing of a considerable share of its industrial maintenance, a sector in which Arquus is a major stakeholder. We are innovating to meet the challenge with the focus on eSupport, which offers solutions based on the analysis of historical data and the development of HUMS (Health and Usage Monitoring System) and decision-making tools. We are also developing remote assistance with 3D glasses. Tomorrow, predictive maintenance via the additive manufacturing of spare parts in the field, offers the prospect of reducing operational logistics and optimising the supply chain.

“The Military Planning Act includes objectives relating to industrial standards ... with a section on the preventive maintenance of vehicles and their equipment.”

General Bosser, Army Chief of Staff

Optimising maintenance and operational availability

It is essential to start taking vehicle maintainability and control of in-service support costs into account at the development stage. We have the capacity to define an in-service support structure which will respect our operational availability commitments: dimensioning of stocks, logistics flows, etc.


A complete offering

Maintenance and repairs are at the core of in-service vehicle support. Arquus delivers a complete offering to cover the full range of requirements and levels:

  •  in-service maintenance of vehicles and equipment through the Volvo Group’s global network or our mobile maintenance teams,
  • flexible fixed rates for component and vehicle retrofitting in our factories or on the customer’s premises (tools, processes and expertise).

“Arquus has developed a range of projectable semi-mobile workshops designed to provide in-service vehicle support on theatres of operation.”

Pro-active and professional

Our teams of experts, our customer hotline, our troubleshooting capacities and our high-tech tools mean that we can rapidly service our customers’ vehicles. At the same time, local support and upgrading capabilities are strengthened through staff training.

A responsive logistics chain naturally ensures fast delivery of spare parts to meet operational needs. But it also guarantees vehicle maintainability and control of in-service support costs from the development stage on. We know how to define an in-service support structure to respect operational availability commitments: dimensioning of stocks, logistics flows, etc.


New tools

eSupport is not a new concern for Arquus. We first started reflecting upon and investing in Health Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) technologies in 2009. The result is an eSupport offering consisting of 3 technological bricks:

  •  data feedback analytics,
  •  HUMS (Health & Usage Monitoring System), 
  • maintenance decision-making.

In addition to the statistical data associated with the first brick, HUMS is used to dynamically monitor the state of health of different vehicle functions. Based on the first two bricks, the last step consists in proposing a maintenance decision-making tool. The aim is to dynamically adapt the maintenance plan to the state of health of the vehicle’s functions and the specific characteristics of future missions.

The Prophète battlefield study should enable optimised operational availability to be ensured. The HUMS, which consists in putting onboard sensors on vehicle components to detect wear will avoid unnecessary changes of parts and components with the resulting shift from preventive maintenance to predictive maintenance.


And what about tomorrow?

Remote troubleshooting and maintenance using 3D-glasses and hotlines connected to databases will mean that repairs can be carried out remotely. New technologies, such as additive maintenance, will help to manage obsolescence by limiting stocks in the long term.