Major T&E Investment

Mission — AF Test Investments source

This PE provides planning, improvements, and modernization for test capabilities within Air Force Test Center (AFTC) Major Range and Test Facility Base (MRTFB) organizations: 96 Test Wing (TW) at Eglin AFB FL, the 412TW at Edwards AFB CA, and Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) at Arnold AFB TN. The 704th Test Group (TG) at Holloman AFB NM is aligned under AEDC as part of the management consolidation of Ground test capabilities. The Improvement and Modernization (I&M) requirements are defined through the AF Test Investment Planning & Programming (TIPP) Process. All projects have been reviewed through the Tri-Service Reliance Process (to communicate AF efforts to the other services and avoid unwarranted duplication of effort) and are documented in the Technology Development Acquisition Program (TDAP) database. Each project has its own planning, development, equipment acquisition, equipment installation, and checkout phases which often require significant differences in funding from one year to the next. As such, the changes in category funding from year-to-year does not necessarily indicate program growth, but rather a planned phasing of I&M efforts. The test capabilities at these locations enable testing through all phases of weapon system acquisition, from system concept exploration through component and full-scale integrated weapon system test to operational test. The 96TW conducts and supports Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) of non-nuclear air armaments; Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems; target acquisition and weapon delivery systems; determines target/test item spectral signatures; and provides cyber testing capabilities as part of the Avionics Cyber Range (ACR). The 412TW conducts and supports DT&E and Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) of aircraft and aircraft systems, aerospace research vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, parachute delivery/recovery/systems, and cargo handling systems. AEDC provides pre-flight reliability environmental test support for DoD aero propulsion, flight systems, and space and missile programs. AEDC has 72 test facilities providing: aerodynamic testing of scale model aircraft, missiles, and space systems; testing of large and full-scale satellites, sensors, and space vehicles in a simulated space environment; altitude environmental testing for aircraft, missile, and spacecraft propulsion systems; testing of large-scale models such as space boosters together with their propulsion systems. The 704TG provides flight test and test support for joint, international and commercial customers in advanced avionics and weapons, inertial navigation systems, Global Positioning System (GPS) and other integrated aircraft and missile navigation systems. They test subsonic through hypersonic ground performance of aircraft and missiles in a flight-representative, highly instrumented environment while also coordinating and scheduling all USAF test operations at White Sands Missile Range. The 704TG OL-AC at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH provides independent DT&E in support of aircraft survivability and evaluation of full-scale aircraft landing gear, tires and brakes. They also provide an independent capability for component qualification. In order to align the strategic capability goals set forth in the National Defense Strategy and the mission of the AFTC, funding has been assigned to these five mission area categories: T&E Range Asset Modernization, Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Cyberspace and Avionics Cyber, and Autonomy. 1) T&E Range and Test Asset Modernization refers to those capabilities required to acquire the ability to test long range, high-speed, highly instrumented, high-data rate weapons in a crowded and restricted spectrum, while operating at multiple classification and cybersecurity levels. Also included in this mission area is the ability to collect, analyze and store big data and the ability to do multi-domain testing across the enterprise with realistic threat scenarios at multiple classification level up to Special Access Program (SAP). 2) Hypersonics refers to the ability to test and evaluate flight-representative hypersonic engines, materials, warheads and fuses in all portions of the employment envelope and conduct flight testing both in simulation and open-air ranges with sufficient space, telemetry, photo-optics and Time Space Position Information (TSPI) to appropriately inform decision-makers fielding such systems. 3) Directed Energy/Electronic Combat acquires the ability to characterize irradiance and beam properties on aircraft, small UAVs and ground targets and create realistic environments to simulate adversary air defense capabilities in the year 2030. Enables 5th-6th generation weapon testing/tactics development in a threat-realistic Anti-Access Area Denial (A2AD) environment using a combination of indoor and open-air ranges. 4) Cyberspace and Avionics Cyber is the advancement of cybersecurity/resiliency test capability for network, C5ISR, and airborne weapon platforms and includes development of tools, techniques and hardware-in-the-loop capabilities focused on cybersecurity and cyber-resiliency. 5) Autonomy refers to the ability to test autonomous aerial and ground systems with hundreds of independent vehicles. Must be able to monitor system-under-test locations and states with the ability for soft and hard termination. Must develop techniques and processes to test systems with artificial intelligence. This program is in Budget Activity 6, RDT&E Management Support because this budget activity includes research, development, test and evaluation efforts and funds to sustain and/or modernize the installations or operations required for general research, development, test and evaluation.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (5)