As the growth and awareness of CBM develop, many ideas and technologies have arisen in efforts to improve CBM. Unfortunately without a plan or path, many of these ideas will never fully mature. There is need for a standardized methodology and roadmap for CBM to reach its full potential. In conjunction with the South Carolina Army National Guard, the University of South Carolina has the resources and channels to develop a roadmap to investigate the transformation of CBM. This can be done in a way that will address a broad array of strategic and tactical issues so as to accomplish the CBM specific objectives. The activities of USC are being performed as a joint industry, academic, and government team.

The roadmap consists of three phases: initial investigation, component and system testing, and the implementation of a fully-capable CBM system.  This roadmap is driven by the currently available digital source collectors, which through integration and linking will direct the needs of laboratory testing.  The results of this self-refining process will ultimately lead to the development of diagnosis and prognosis algorithms which will facilitate proactive CBM practices.

The transition to CBM requires a collaborative effort on a massive scale and is contingent on identifying and incorporating enhanced and emerging technologies into existing and future aviation systems. This will require new tools, test equipment, and embedded on-board diagnosis systems.  Even more critical, the transition to CBM involves the construction of data-centric, platform-operating capabilities built around carefully developed robust algorithms. This will allow soldiers in the field, support analysts, and engineers the ability to simultaneously, in real-time, translate aircraft conditional data in combination with widely diverse environmental factors, thereby allowing soldiers to sense and proactively respond to maintenance needs based on the actual aircraft condition.