Vulnerability Assessment Of Aircraft A Review Of The Department Of Defense Live Fire Test And Evaluation Program

As a consequence of the reluctance by DoD to conduct realistic live fire tests on systems in development, Congress passed legislation in fiscal year 1987 that requires realistic vulnerability testing of covered weapon systems, including aircraft, before they can proceed beyond Low Rate Initial Production. The legislation is known as the Live Fire Test (LFT) law. The realistic vulnerability tests mandated by the LFT law must be conducted on the system, configured for combat, using weapons likely to be encountered in combat. A waiver from these mandated tests is possible if the Secretary of Defense certifies to Congress, prior to entry into engineering and manufacturing development, that such tests are unreasonably expensive and impractical. An alternate plan for assessing vulnerability must be submitted if a waiver to the mandated system tests is given. In an attempt to resolve the controversy regarding the law's requirements, and to obtain an independent opinion regarding the total vulnerability assessment process and the law's contribution to that process, the DDDR & E(T & E), now the Director, Test and Evaluation, requested that the National Research Council (NRC) conduct a study of aircraft vulnerability assessment. The NRC appointed the Committee on Weapons Effects on Airborne Systems to conduct the study. The report is the result of the committee's deliberations.