An automated short crack monitoring and testing system has been developed that is fully controlled by purpose-written software. This is capable of testing and monitoring the growth of short surface breaking cracks as small as 10 μm in notched and plain specimens subject to fatigue cycling up to temperatures of 700°C. Using this new system, short fatigue crack growth data have been obtained in Waspaloy at room and elevated temperatures in a faster and more easy manner compared to the conventional methods involving surface replication techniques.