Live Fire Test and Evaluation (LFT&E)
Abstract
This Program Element consists of three programs: Joint Live Fire (JLF), Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP), and Joint Technical Coordinating Group for Munitions Effectiveness (JTCG/ME). This Program Element directly supports the Congressional statutory requirements for oversight of LFT&E. The primary objective of LFT&E is to assure that the vulnerability and survivability of Department of Defense (DOD) crew-carrying platforms and the lethality of our conventional munitions are known and acceptable before entering full-rate production. LFT&E encompasses realistic tests involving actual U.S. and foreign threat hardware or, if not available, acceptable surrogate threat hardware. The objective is to identify and correct design deficiencies early in the development process. A completed LFT&E program and test report is required before programs proceed beyond low-rate initial production (BLRIP). LFT&E also includes realistic modeling and simulation (M&S) to examine survivability and lethality attributes not assessed during testing. This Program Element supports DoD’s Joint Live Fire (JLF) Program. JLF was initiated in 1984 under an Office of the Secretary of Defense charter to test fielded front-line combat aircraft and armor systems for their vulnerabilities as well as fielded weapons, both U.S. and foreign, for their lethality against their respective targets. Funds are also used to support other initiatives related to quick reaction requests from theater and other areas of personnel survivability. JASP is the DOD’s focal point for joint service enhancement of military aircraft non-nuclear survivability. The JASP is chartered by the Commander of the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition Logistics and Technology), and the Commander of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center to increase the affordability, readiness, and effectiveness of Tri-Service aircraft through joint coordination and development of survivability technologies, design tools and assessment methodologies. The JASP coordinates and conducts RDT&E to improve military aircraft survivability, develop and standardize aircraft survivability modeling and simulation (M&S), facilitate information exchange on aircraft survivability, and support aircraft survivability education for the DOD and U.S. aircraft community. Each chartering command provides a senior aircraft survivability expert for the JASP Principal Members Steering Group, which guides the program and approves projects for funding. The JASP assesses and reports on combat damage incidents through the Joint Combat Assessment Team (JCAT). JTCG/ME was chartered over 50 years ago to serve as DOD’s focal point for munitions effectiveness information. The JTCG/ME produces Joint Munitions Effectiveness Manuals (JMEMs) that are the sole source for all Joint Service authenticated non-nuclear weapons effectiveness data and methodology for DOD. The JMEMs are the “how to” manuals for putting ordnance on target and as such, directly impacts combat readiness, effectiveness, and survivability. JMEMs are used by the Warfighters in operational weaponeering and collateral damage estimation (CDE) calls in direct support of operations, mission planning, and training; by the DoD, Joint, and Service planners in force-on-force M&S, mission area analysis, requirements studies, and weapon procurement planning; and by the service acquisition community in performance assessment, analysis of alternatives, and survivability enhancement studies. The JTCG/ME continually evolves weapons effectiveness and target vulnerability data, standards, methodologies, and processes based on the strategic environment for better munitions effectiveness evaluation and support to a more lethal force. JTCG/ME also increases efficiency by leveraging ongoing DOD efforts and supporting the DOD's intent to complement U.S. interest and capabilities by providing weaponeering and targeting capability to coalition partners. The JMEM requirements and development processes are driven by operational lessons learned (i.e. Inherent Resolve, Resolute Support, and Freedom Sentinel), Joint Staff data call and the needs of Combatant Commands (CCMDs), Services, Military Targeting Committee (MTC) guided by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction (CJCSI) 5140.01, Munitions Requirements Process (MRP) - DOD Instruction (DODI) 3000.04 and Operational Users Working Groups (OUWGs) input for specific weapon-target pairings and methodologies. Considerable effort goes into these user forums to establish Warfighter requirements for current and future JTCG/ME products, as well as continued training events and day-to-day support - all with the goal of enabling greater force lethality, strengthened partner capabilities, and optimal use of resources. This program element also includes funds to obtain Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) expertise in performing analyses in support of described LFT&E tasks, as well as travel funds to carry out the LFT&E, JASP, and JTCG/ME programs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- R2 Budgetary Justification
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Source ID
- 0605131OTE_6_0460_PB_2023
- Change Summary Explanation
- FY 2023 funding increase reflects the fact that the FY 2022 President's Budget request did not include out-year funding. FY 2023 Weaponeering Tools to Support Strikes in a Contested Maritime Environment Increase: The Weaponeering Tools to Support Strikes in a Contested Maritime Environment initiative will enable the ability to bring Joint Fires to bear in a maritime action by providing a joint-service approved, scene-based Maritime Operational Weaponeering Tool that can assess weapons effects and optimize weapon allocation. Funding will used to achieve the following: (1) Development of appropriate weaponeering prediction models (JMEMs for maritime threats), (2) Delivery of critical data to improve lethal effect estimate methodologies, (3) Development of target geometry models for prioritized surface and subsurface maritime targets, (4) Development of weaponeering-level, engineering-level, collateral damage estimation, and predictive battle damage assessment methodologies required by Strike Approval Authorities to make their strike decision calls, and (5) Improvement of supporting engineering models to analyze weapon effectiveness, weapon characteristics, delivery accuracy, reliability, and target vulnerabilities. This initiative will increase force-wide lethality by providing Combatant Commanders with improved capability to plan and execute missions in a contested maritime environment. It will deliver a weaponeering tool capable of timely and accurate estimates with current and future kinetic/non-kinetic weapons and the required aimpoints to achieve the desired lethal effect against maritime targets (surface and subsurface). More specifically, this enhancement will enable the development of data and analytics based operational tools significantly improving the ability to prosecute high value maritime targets in the INDOPACOM, CENTCOM and EUCOM AORs, while producing salvo tables that will reduce over-allocation of ordnance in an already low-density, high-demand environment. FY 2023 Joint Targeting Intelligence (JTI) Increase: JTCG/ME funding will support investment in Joint Targeting Intelligence (JTI) modernization. JTI is the Joint Staff J2’s portion of the Joint Targeting Cycle that selects, analyzes, and prioritizes targets and then assesses the results of the application of military force. JTI drives the operations process of linking desired effects to tasks in order to meet the Commander’s objectives. This initiative will align the doctrine/ modernize the architecture that governs targeting with the tools that are used for weaponeering, collateral damage estimation, combat assessment, and munitions effectiveness assessment across the CCMDs and Services. JTI Requirements Definition Package includes 25 requirements for the targeting enterprise to be addressed by selected targeting tools (i.e. Digital Imagery Exploitation Engine (DIEE)/JMEM Weaponeering System (JWS), Joint Targeting Toolbox (JTT), Modernized Integrated Database (MIDB), and Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment (IMEA)). JTCG/ME, in coordination with Joint Staff J2 and OUSD (I&S), will evolve DIEE/JWS and the DOD's battle damage assessment repository to meet the emerging requirements of the JTI (e.g., Common Data Models in data centric environment), with the goal of providing capabilities to the targeting enterprise that evolve with current technological demands.
- Service Agency Name
- Operational Test and Evaluation, Defense
Entities
Organizations
- Operational Test and Evaluation Force
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- Child Accomplishment: Live Fire Test and Evaluation