Ruggedized Tablets: Air Force Logistics

All departments of the military, including the Air Force, are utilizing purpose-built rugged tablets for fleet maintenance, helping to streamline processes, improve the workflows, and enhance productivity. These portable, high powered tablets have swiftly become a way to quickly and competently manage tasks from inventory reconciliation to the standard checks.

The advantages of the rugged tablets in UAE for plane maintenance include their capability for streamlining processes and workflows among the crewmembers and at the administrative levels. Common Access Card (CAC) readers make it easy for multiple members of any group to effectively use the tablet at their level of data access. Features like cameras, GNSS and GPS modules, and more allow for real-time data in various forms to be captured and sent to specialists for help in the field.

Tablets improve fleet maintenance and management by:

• Giving facilitation of admin-based maintenance tasks for speed and efficiency.
• It creates many layers of safety and redundancy for sensitive files.
• Automating data collection, sorting, and retention for faster data interpretation.

All of these improved processes can give maintenance support across various fleets, including ships, tanks, trucks, and planes. Wireless tablets can be pushed into service to feed data from various points constantly, rendering an actual picture of the whole fleet and exact, real-time data concerning particular machines.

This can give Air Force maintenance crews with better connectivity and higher efficiency, with proven data capture and transmission methods and purpose-built ruggedized tablet deployment for increased productivity for the following tasks:

• Technical maintenance management.
• Warehouse inventory control.
• Field testing, training, and data oversight.

While civilian use of ruggedized tablets has included swift adoption and innovation, the sensitivity and security of military information delayed full deployment of ruggedized tablets until experienced designer-manufacturers like Panasonic concentrated on military-grade feature advancement. Each rugged tablet is built to rigorous military specifications for stability and security protocols.

Maintenance and software in military aerospace are currently capable of taking benefits from this specification and customization. Touchscreen interfaces and long-life batteries with hot-swap capacity are present in the latest ruggedized systems, enabling flight-line preservation processes for military aircraft to be continuously digitized and improved. There are multiple benefits in the air and for reconnaissance, transport, and theater situations as well, with satellite communications (SATCOM) connectivity delivering situational awareness through mapping data, images, and videos.

Full utilization of ruggedized tablets for fleet maintenance and management in the Air Force brings the concept of a cyber-controlled military one step closer to fruition, guarding the lives of service members and making every process in the line of duty safer.