ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a more complete description of the Versatile Avionics Shop Test (VAST) tester itself. It describes the US Navy maintenance organization, progressing from the top of the Navy structure down to a detailed description of how VAST fits into the avionics repair cycle. VAST combined many different testers into one large physical device; it enabled the Navy to get rid of a large part of the avionics logistics tail, by requiring avionics manufacturers to build VAST-testable WRAs. VAST and the rest of the I-level shops are physically contiguous to the O-level, and are operationally very closely linked to the squadrons since their purpose is to quickly replenish avionics needs for the O-level through Supply. The information-processing effect of VAST on repair priority decisions was to increase the amount of "variety" in the system.
