Solving the problem of increasing the durability of pavement requires establishing a level of permissible defectiveness that takes into account insecure hidden damage, such as hidden cracks. A detailed study of hidden cracks became possible with the development of means and methods for non-destructive testing of pavement, but their diversity greatly complicates the procedure for choosing the optimal methods and technical means for solving problems of pavement diagnostics. Therefore, the article analyzes the potential and scope of instrumental methods for diagnosing non-rigid pavement for solving problems of assessing the state of non-rigid pavement with cracks in layers of monolithic materials, and substantiates the most promising methods and tools for positioning and identifying cracks in pavement layers. The conducted studies allow: to substantiate the requirements for equipment for solving the problems of flaw detection of flat-layered media, in particular, non-rigid pavement; develop a procedure for diagnosing non-rigid pavement; to develop methods for interpreting diagnostic results to solve the problems of finding, positioning and identifying cracks in layers of non-rigid pavement. The conducted studies have proved that GPRs have the greatest potential for solving the problem of non-rigid pavement flaw detection. The advantages of GPR sounding for solving this class of problems are ensured by the continuity of data collection, the best resolution relative to other geophysical methods, high shooting speed, and the possibility of using it in a wide range of road construction materials. It can also be stated that there is considerable experience in the use of GPR for searching, positioning and identifying through cracks in layers of non-rigid pavement, while research on finding, positioning and identifying hidden cracks is very limited. Therefore, further research should be aimed at solving the following problems: improving methods for restoring the dielectric constant in multilayer structures, which will improve the reliability of GPR data interpretation results and the efficiency of diagnostics; development of methods for recording and analyzing the polarization state of the signal reflected from cracks, which creates a theoretical foundation for flaw detection of pavements and expands the possibilities of GPR diagnostics; substantiation of the type of antenna units, which will improve the accuracy of measurements. The solution of these problems will allow assessing the state of non-rigid pavement with cracks, based on information about the geometric and structural heterogeneity of the layers of the structure, obtained from the results of GPR sounding.