Updating US Army Aviation Critical Item Management for 21st Century

U.S. Army Aviation has extensively managed critical aircraft components based on the technical requirements and methods outlined in AMCOM Regulation 702-7 Flight Safety Parts/New Source Testing Program Management. This paper provides an overview of the newly revised AMCOM Regulation 702-7, previously published in October 2000. This update was necessary to keep up with the updated requirements of high tier documents, such Public Law 108-136, DA Pam 95-9, and other related regulations. This effort has produced a new AMCOM Regulation 702-7 Critical Safety Items (CSI), Critical Application Items (CAI), and New Source Testing (NST) Program Management, officially released in June 2017. The revised document addresses the complete quality oversight controls for CSIs and includes newly defined oversight and control requirements for CAIs. Furthermore, the new revision has been clarified by incorporating lessons learned while eliminating confusion and ambiguity from the previous document. The appendices have been revised to better describe technical and quality requirements for manufacturers and overhaul sources for CSIs, and also detail the Army programs in place to provide confidence that items inducted into the Army supply system are safe and conforming. In this paper, various technical aspects of CSI, CAI, and NST that have been established for US Army rotary wing aircrafts are presented and discussed in detail.