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The new combinations such as composites and titanium that are being used on today's new airplanes are proving to be very challenging when drilling holes during manufacturing and assembly operations. Gone are the days of hand drilling with high speed steel drills through soft aluminum structure, after which aluminum rivets would be swaged into those holes with very generous tolerances. The drilling processes today need to use cutter materials hard enough and tough enough to cut through hard metals such as titanium, yet be sharp enough to resistant abrasion and maintain size when drilling through composites. There is a constant search for better cutters and drills that can drill a greater number of holes. The cost of materials used in today's aircraft is much higher. The cutting tools are more expensive and the hole tolerances are much tighter.

Traditionally, vehicle power wiring safety has consisted of a reactive thermal circuit breaker that responds to an overload condition. In addition, maintenance operations have been reactive as well, searching for a possible damaged section of wiring in a large and often difficult to access wire bundle. Advancements in detection of changes in impedance, arc, corona, and reflectometry to measure general wire damage have the potential to automate the process, while increasing vehicle safety and reducing costs. Some of these technologies are also pro-active and can warn of a potential problem during routine maintenance checks using hand held instrumentation or if embedded in a vehicle can detect problems prior to power up or after system power up using real-time monitoring.