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Combat vehicles have traditionally been designed to provide increased capabilities in response to a real or projected threat. These capabilities always fell into the areas of shoot, move, communicate, and survive. Maintainability, Manprint, and Supportability were addressed secondary. An integrated electronic architecture is being developed to improve Operation and Support costs of combat vehicles. The architecture is comprised of standard hardware and software modules that are designed and fabricated in accordance with form, fit and function specifications. By standardizing the hardware and software interfaces the development process will be accelerated while allowing interchangeability of both hardware and software between weapon systems.

The problem of performing vehicle diagnostics during the past 10 years has grown in magnitude and has become even more difficult and sophisticated for Army Combat vehicles. Army combat vehicles have increased greatly in capability largely through the use of the ever expanding electronic and microcomputer technology. Through proper exploitation of the same technology, more efficient integration of the vehicle subsystems can be achieved to make possible built-in diagnostics. Built-in diagnostics must be part of the system design to provide a “fix forward” capability in the highly mobile and lethal battlefield of the future.

This paper discusses the development of an improved armored personnel carrier, the M113A1E1 for the U.S. Army. This vehicle is an improved/modernized version of the standard M113A1-APC. The development included improving the suspension, increasing the horsepower, improving the cooling, changing the drive train and driver's controls, and improving personnel safety by moving the fuel tanks to an external location. Prototypes were built and are undergoing development and operational testing at U.S. Government proving grounds.