Live Fire Testing of the F-22 (1995) / Chapter Skim
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3 PRACTICALITY, AFFORDABILITY, AND COST-BENEFIT
3 PRACTICALITY, AFFORDABILITY, AND COST-BENEFIT
Pages 31-43
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From page 31... ...
Relative Importance of Vulnerability Reduction to F-22 Survivability The live fire test law's definition of "realistic survivability testing" states that "the primary emphasis [is] on testing vulnerability with respect to potential user casualties arid taking into equal consideration the susceptibility to attack and combat performance of the system" (10 U.S.C.
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From page 32... ...
Of course, the priority on Tow susceptibility does not Rae out design changes to address a critical wInerability discovered in the live fire test program and attendant analysis and other testing. The issue is not whether a live fire test program is required all agree that it is.
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From page 33... ...
The third level of live fire testing involves a complete, production aircraft not loaded with live ordnance or fuel. Selected systems may or may not be operating.
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From page 34... ...
NO Achieving realism in the aircraft s configuration is straightforward, but it can be expensive. The possibility of discovering an unexpected interaction between systems argues that everything to be catTied on a mission be in place during live fire testing.
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From page 35... ...
Statistical significance quantifies the confidence that one can place in the test results obtained. This confidence is a function of the variability of the data and the size of the sample set, which is the number of trials that can be conducted in the case of live fire testing.2 It is important to be able to support adequate sample sizes to achieve reasonable statistical significance across all levels of testing.
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From page 36... ...
This opinion is based on Free factors: 3 Destructive testing is commonly understood to be the opposite of nondestructive testing, which is an approach to testing that does not involve damage or destruction of the test sample. By its very nature, live fire testing causes damage to the material or component being tested.
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From page 37... ...
A test plan that dictates a methodical buildup of tests from the component level, to the subsystem level, to the subassembly level, to the large assembly level, and, if required, to the full-scale level made more sense to the committee than assuming at the outset that fi~-scale tests were necessary in every case. Additionally, while each of the enumerated benefits of
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From page 38... ...
Unaffordable budget items remain unended until either more funding is authorized or the priorities of activities within the program are reassessed (e.g., previously unaffordable items displace funded items based on analyses Mat reassess their relative benefits)
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From page 39... ...
Even if $250 million were provided for additional vulnerability assessment of the F-22, the committee would not support using the fiends for full-up, full-scale testing. Both Air Force and Navy experts on aircraft vulnerability assessment indicated that, if they were provided a new production aircraft for live fire testing, they would prefer to disassemble it arid perform live fire testing on a less than filll-up, full-scale configuration.
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From page 40... ...
The committee believes that the SPO's investment mode} offers a limited context from which to reject, analytically, additional increments of live fire testing. Analytic approaches based on incorrect premises have a way of producing logically derived results that may well be wrong.
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From page 41... ...
Reduced vulnerability and increased capability to repair battle-damaged aircraft may become determinative. Under these conditions, additional investment in live fire testing could be attractive, particularly if it might reveal ways to produce a significant increase in the number of combat sorties flown (e.g., through increased tolerance to damage sustained in combat arid the development of techniques for repairing damaged aircraft in the field)
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From page 42... ...
The sufficiency of live fire tests currently planned for the F-22 is addressed in the next chapter. Finally, the committee recognizes that its judgments regarding the costs arid benefits of full-up, full-scale testing were reached in the absence of a mature methodology for assessing benefits relative to costs.
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From page 43... ...
1994. Discussion of Live Fire Testing Philosophy and the History Associated with First Report.
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