From the Director’s Desk

Dennis Lindell Profile Picture

Thank you for your readership ans support of the Aircraft Survivability journal.  For more than 50 years, the Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP) has supported the research, develop­ment, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) of combat-proven aircraft survivability capabilities for the U.S. military. First chartered as the Joint Technical Coordinating Group on Aircraft Survivability (JTCG/AS) in 1971 in response to the high aircraft loss rates the U.S. was suffering in Southeast Asia, the JTCG/AS focused the commu­nity on susceptibility reduction (design characteristics that make an aircraft harder to detect) and vulnerability reduction (design characteristics that give an aircraft the ability to withstand a hit). Later, modeling and simulation (M&S) for survivability assessment and the establishment of aircraft survivability as a formal design discipline became additional focus areas of the JTCG/AS.

Rechartered as JASP in 2005, the group has continued its mission to “achieve increased affordability, readiness, and effectiveness of tri-Service aircraft through the joint coordination and development of survivability (suscepti­bility and vulnerability reduction) technologies and assessment method­ologies.” To accomplish this mission, JASP focuses on:

  • Exchanging aircraft survivability information with the Services to increase the combat effectiveness of military aircraft in threat environments.
  • Identifying aviation capability gaps that require aircraft survivability RDT&E and ensuring the gaps are addressed in a joint warfighting context.
  • Implementing RDT&E that comple­ments Service aviation survivability programs.
  • Investigating and reporting on combat damage incidents, through the Joint Combat Assessment Team (JCAT).
  • Instilling a common understanding of aircraft survivability concepts, methods, and tools in current and future analysts, developers, and leaders. (One method is through support of aircraft combat survivability education—such as from the Naval Postgraduate School and Air Force Institute of Technology—for military, Department of Defense [DoD] civilian, and DoD contractor personnel.)
  • Interfacing with other DoD programs, the intelligence community, other federal agencies, and industry to improve military aircraft survivability.

The JASP mission also requires the ongoing coordination and funding of many technical projects. Our coordina­tion focuses on facilitating information exchange and education and aligning efforts toward common goals. The primary vehicles we use for this coordination are the following:

  • Online and Print Publications
    • The JASP website (for public release information; see http://jasp-online.org)
    • The JASP space on DoDTechipedia (for public release and controlled unclassi­fied information [CUI]; see https://www.dodtechipedia.mil/ dodwiki/x/IYY8KQ)
    • The Aircraft Survivability journal (for public release information; published three times/year)
    • The Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability textbook
    • The JASP Specialist Directory (online in the JASP space on DoDTechipedia)
  • Training
    • JCAT Threat Weapons Effects (TWE) Training
    • Aircraft Combat Survivability Short Course
  • Sponsored Joint Meetings
    • JASP Model Users Meeting
    • JASP Program Review
    • JASP Proposal Review Meeting
    • Susceptibility Reduction Working Group
    • M&S Configuration Control Boards (for SLATE, BRAWLER, COVART, BlueMax, and Next Generation Fire Model)
  • JASP RDT&E Documents
    • ~500 reports since 2003 entered in the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)
    • >86% project publishing rate
    • JASP M&S tools archived in the Defense Systems Information Analysis Center (DSIAC)
  • Aircraft Survivability Working Groups
    • Vulnerability Assessment and Reduction
    • Susceptibility Assessment and Reduction.

The relevancy of JASP and its efforts can be seen daily as U.S. forces execute their important missions on battlefields around the globe. In addition, the progression of aircraft survivability understanding and capability in the face of ever-capable threats and complex, multidomain theaters of operation demonstrates both the success of the aircraft survivability community in the past and the challenges we are charged to address in the future. Admittedly, some of these challenges are large, but so is JASP’s resolve to continue to provide a focal point across the DoD to identify and develop the tools, techniques, and technologies needed to address them.

In conclusion, as you read through this issue of Aircraft Survivability, I hope you’ll find the content to be informative, interesting, and useful. The journal is intended to provide an ongoing opportunity for aircraft survivability practitioners to share ideas, recognize accomplishments, and coordinate efforts across our common areas of interest. It’s also a real-time reflection of the remarkable ingenuity, dedication, and professionalism of our aircraft survivability community. And it’s not possible without your participation. Therefore, I want to challenge each reader to share an article in this issue with a colleague, as well as to submit his/her own article for publication in 2023.

Sincerely,

By:  Dennis Lindell

Read Time:  3 minutes

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