Developing Statistically Defensible Propulsion System Test Techniques

Abstract

Acquisition of military hardware typically proceeds from design, development, production, and finally to operational use and support. Prior to the full-rate production, both developmental and operational test and evaluation (DT&E and OT&E respectively) must occur to ensure that the system meets military requirements. The United States Air Force (USAF) is continually looking for ways to improve its test and evaluation techniques. Since 1997, Air Combat Command (ACC) has been successfully using Design of Experiments (DOE) to construct and analyze operational test efforts. This presentation highlights recent efforts to pursue statistically defensible test techniques to aid developmental test efforts. Defensible testing is a statistical approach similar to DOE but emphasizes the need for better test planning by: (1) insistence on understanding the system under test; (2) requiring clear and achievable test objectives; (3) ensuring system performance is measurable; (4) requiring that instrumentation accuracy and uncertainty propagation are well understood; and (5) and requiring confidence, power, and performance thresholds.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 15, 2011
Accession Number
ADA545838

Entities

People

  • Christopher Moulder
  • Craig Stevens
  • David Kidman
  • James Brownlow
  • Todd Remund
  • William Kitto

Organizations

  • Air Force Test Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Afterburners
  • Air Force
  • Case Studies
  • Data Science
  • Engineers
  • Engines
  • Experimental Design
  • Information Science
  • Instrumentation
  • Military Acquisition
  • Propulsion Systems
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Statistics
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Uncertainty
  • United States

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Software Engineering
  • Systems Analysis and Design