From the Director’s Desk
by Dennis Lindell
Welcome to the fall 2024 issue of the Aircraft Survivability journal. One cannot overstate the impact that modeling and simulation (M&S) have had on the research, development, test, evaluation, and survivability of U.S. combat aircraft. Costly manual tests and processes that once took days, weeks, and months to help analysts compute and better understand the complex inner workings of threat-target interactions, material characteristics, and system vulnerabilities are now often modelled in just seconds, minutes, and hours. What’s more, model parameters can be quickly modified, and runs can be repeated hundreds or thousands of times to provide high confidence in the results. And the availability, speed, accuracy, and applicability of these models only grow stronger every day.
Accordingly, in this fall issue we highlight a few examples of the many advances that are currently being made in survivability M&S concepts, approaches, and applications. In our feature article, Dr. Joshua Wells and Mr. Kyle Harrigan from the Georgia Tech Research Institute discuss the pressing need to establish and maintain comprehensive commonality in the terminology and standards used in electronic attack (EA) M&S and testing. Undoubtedly, this commonality will be increasingly important as EA, cyber, and other emerging technologies continue to change the face of the modern battlefield.
In addition, an author team from the Institute for Defense Analyses; U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Analysis Center; and Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation proposes an improved methodology for validating the Army’s Advanced Joint Effectiveness Model (AJEM). This methodology promises to help ensure that AJEM, as well as potentially other tri-Service vulnerability assessment tools, remains credible and effective.
Messrs. John Bennett and Brent Waggoner from the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Navy Integrated Countermeasures Effectiveness Laboratory also provide an overview of the development, functionality, and adaptability of the Reconfigurable Signal-Injection Missile Simulation (RSIMS). The ongoing RSIMS project is a good example of the type of synergistic advancement that can be achieved via multi-organizational (and multi-national) collaboration and cooperation.
Finally, we have reports on this year’s JASP Model Users Meeting and Threat Weapons Effects Symposium; recent recognitions (and one retirement) of some community members; and the release (or rerelease) of some survivability-related publications and databases.
Thank you again for reading, and please look for future ASJ issues, which are planned to discuss topics such as full-spectrum survivability assessment, attack scene investigation and battlefield vehicle forensics, full-up cyber testing, space system survivability, extreme climate testing, stories in survivability, and more.
Sincerely,
