Accelerating Warfighter Readiness in Real-Time: AR-enabled 3D Digital Damage Mapping

Enhanced Inspection

Problem Statement: Airframe structural damage impacts mission capability and availability. Battle damage, hail, foreign object debris, and bird strikes are frequent causes. Traditional inspection methods are subjective, inconsistent, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. This creates sustainment bottlenecks that compromise warfighter safety and readiness.

Description of innovative solution: To support faster recovery, 8tree — a minority-owned small business — developed dentCHECK, the world’s first and only AR-enabled 3D damage-mapping tool that delivers real-time go/no-go answers. Its innovation rests in combining optical measurement and usability engineering to deliver 48x faster inspection time, 20x more consistent measurement, and 32% less rework errors. dentCHECK is a structured light 3D precision scanner packaged as an easy-to-use tool for any skill level, from maintainers to engineers. Unlike traditional general purpose 3D scanners, which generate complex point clouds requiring extensive post-processing, dentCHECK delivers real-time actionable results.

Benefits to the DoW:

• Shrinks Turn-Around-Time (TaT); 48x faster inspection time
• Boosts measurement accuracy & safety; 20x more consistent measurements
• Real-time go/no-go answers; point-and-shoot; AR-projected results on the aircraft skin
• Ease-of-use fosters multi-capable Airmen in an expeditionary force
• 100% digital workflow eliminates subjectivity and human error; permanent records for future reference
• Proven cost and readiness impact: 302 AW cited dentCHECK-enabled savings of $500K in manpower; aircraft returned to service in weeks, not months
• Cross-service relevance: Applicable to air fleets in any service branch; in early adoption by naval shipyards for corrosion mapping

Innovation Challenges: Military maintenance demands solutions that work seamlessly in a range of environments. dentCHECK was built to operate in a variety of settings – depots, flight-lines and the field. Portability, tether-free operation, integrated AR, instant results, and 1-button operation, combine in a single tool to meet these challenges. Tests in harsh battlefield environments have yet to be conducted.

Technical Maturity/ Demonstration Results: dentCHECK is a TRL-9 COTS tool used by dozens of commercial aviation organizations. In the DoW, it is a TRL-6/7 tool with evaluations ongoing. Within Defense, dentCHECK is already used by USAF 89 MXG, RCAF Sqn 435, Bundeswehr, RAAF and Defense contractors. Several more DoW units are actively exploring and supporting dentCHECK adoption to improve maintenance Quality and Fleet Readiness, including:

• AFMC/WR-ALC (402nd AMXG/CMXG) — issued memo supporting APFIT FY2026 submission
• NGB/ANG — presenting dentCHECK at WEPTAC 2025 for NGREA funding
• FRCE/NAVAIR/NavalX (Navy)
• USAF MFTO — evaluating for use across sheet-metal shops
• OASW Corrosion Office — guiding RSIP application

Industry case studies, including Aerospace Maintenance Council competitions, confirm dentCHECK’s proven performance over traditional methods.