A maintenance method and apparatus based on reliability centered maintenance, applied for example to a military aircraft, include the following steps performed in a feedback manner: i) performing RCM; ii) feeding outcomes derived from performing the RCM to an update process; iii) performing the update process to provide update data for performing the RCM; and iv) inputting the update data into the performing of the RCM. The method can carry out a maintenance action selected by and/or or at a time and/or extent specified by the performing of the RCM; the outcomes that are fed to the update process including outcomes from the maintenance action that is carried out. The maintenance method thereby can provide a continuously updating RCM process.