Company’s powerful new simulation technology will enable better cost-management of airframes.

Brentwood, TN, April 14, 2009 – In concert with the Air Force Structural Integrity Program (ASIP), VEXTEC has been funded to demonstrate how its recently developed Fleet Trade Study Simulator can better enable the Air Force to continue to achieve high mission capable rates and safety while reducing sustainment costs of its older fleets.

VEXTEC started its “Proactive Sustainment” initiative under a previous Air Force contract. The current funding will combine talents from the Air Force Research Laboratory and fleet operators at Hill AFB to jointly demonstrate that inspection and risk level engineering/cost benefit analysis can provide new insights which will ultimately yield high cost savings for the fleet. Most of the existing aircraft fleets are expected to last well beyond their originally intended design life – sometimes up to 4 times longer. Extending the service life of the airframe, safely, comes at an excessively high cost. Fleet structural managers have indicated to VEXTEC that managing the risk and cost are among their biggest issues. Until now, Air Force Service Depot teams have not had tools to compare inspection procedures, risk levels and cost.

VEXTEC is certainly up to the challenge. Said Dr. Animesh Dey, VEXTEC Chief Product Development Officer, “VEXTEC welcomes this opportunity to help the Department of Defense respond to the GAO’s stated need for operations and support cost reductions, and we’re looking forward to showing what an impact our advanced computational technology can make on safety, efficiency and cost.”