IMPROVEMENTS TO VEHICLE HEALTH MANAGEMENT APPROACHES BY INCORPORATING HIGH-FIDELITY MODELING OF AS-BUILT AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS INTO AN INDIVIDUALIZED DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS APPROACH IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY DEMANDED. A NARI SEEDLING PROJECT AT NASA LANGLEY IS DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK TO BEGIN TESTING SUCH FUTURE APPROACHES. ONE LIMITATION OF EXISTING NUMERICAL TOOLS IS THE LACKING ABILITY TO INSERT DETECTED CRACKS OF ARBITRARY SHAPE AND RELIABLY PROPAGATE THEM UNDER EXPECTED FATIGUE LOADING CONDITIONS FOR PROGNOSIS, WITHOUT USER INTERVENTION. SEVERAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES ARE ATTEMPTING THIS AND ONE SOFTWARE PACKAGE, FRANC3D, HAS BEEN SELECTED WITHIN THE NARI SEEDLING PROJECT AS THE NUMERICAL MODELING TOOL FOR THE EXPLICIT REPRESENTATION OF CRACK TOPOLOGY AND GEOMETRY. HOWEVER, A FEW EXTENSIONS TO FRANC3D ARE NECESSARY TO FULLY IMPLEMENT THE DESIRED FRAMEWORK. VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF THE COMPLETED CODE IS NECESSARY AND WILL RESULT FROM CLOSE COLLABORATION BETWEEN FRACTURE ANALYSIS CONSULTANTS AND NASA LANGLEY COLLABORATORS PERFORMING BOTH VIT1UAL AND PHYSICAL TESTING.