From the Director’s Desk
By Dennis Lindell
Welcome to the latest edition of the Aircraft Survivability journal (ASJ), featuring updates and insights from the aircraft survivability community.
In this issue, we have summaries of last fall’s 2022 Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP) Program Review (JPR), as well as the National Defense Industrial Association’s Aircraft Survivability Symposium and awards. In addition, we recognize the 50th birthday of the F-15 aircraft, with its long, impressive history of survivability and ongoing impact in the field.
Our cover story—written by Dr. Sandra Hobson, Mr. Paul Lowe, Mr. Nilo Thomas, Dr. Jeremy Werner, and Mr. Garry Bishop—provides a detailed summary of DOT&E’s strategy to transform the test and evaluation of acquisition programs and fielded systems to meet the objectives of the 2022 National Defense Strategy.
From the Joint Combat Assessment Team, CDR Oral John and LT William Hutson update us on joint efforts to maintain and improve aircraft combat damage reporting capability across the Services.
Ms. Julia Russell from the Naval Air Warfare Center gives us a glimpse into naval aviation’s reported top performance degrader—corrosion—and highlights how the Naval Aviation Enterprise is working to combat this environmental threat and significantly reduce its impact.
For our Excellence in Survivability article, Mr. Bob Wissel honors Mr. Hugh Griffis of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for his longstanding contributions and leadership to the U.S. Air Force, JASP, and the Joint Services.
Finally, Mr. Eric Edwards remembers the unlikely, life-saving tow of an F-4 Phantom by a KC-135 Stratotanker over the North Atlantic 40 years ago, providing yet another example of the remarkable bravery and ingenuity of our military aviators as well as an ongoing tribute to the many designers, manufacturers, testers, analysts, modelers, maintainers, and others who strive every day to make U.S. combat aircraft the toughest, most survivable, and most effective aircraft possible.
Thank you again for reading the journal. We welcome any feedback and contributions you have. And be sure to stay tuned for our summer and fall issues, which will include results from our recent ASJ reader survey; updates on the CH-53K tail drive and Chinook Block 2 testing programs; a status report on the latest aircraft fire/ullage studies; and detailed discussions on numerous technical topics, including cyber survivability measurement, the role of M&S in developing software for uncrewed air systems, and the development of a Dynamically Variable Magazine that promises to provide aircraft with enhanced self-protection and survivability against guided and unguided threats.
In addition, we’ll take a tour through the Davis-Monthan “Boneyard” to see how the Air Force is retiring (or just resting) the country’s largest collection of old warbirds, as well as how the aircraft survivability community is continuing to leverage these valuable assets to improve current and future warfighting capability.
Sincerely,
