Having its roots in the Naval Aircraft Materials Laboratory and the Mobile Aircraft Support Unit, it was formally commissioned on 27 May 2010 as a Front Line Scientific & Technical Support Team, to centralise a number of previously separate repair and investigative airframe activities, which do not require return-to-manufacturer action. The unit regularly deploys detachments to operational theatres to learn from recent missions, offer specialist advice and intervention to cure on-the-spot issues, conduct materials science and chemical analyses and provide innovative solutions to battlespace problems.