4When the first issue of the Aircraft Survivability journal (ASJ) rolled off the presses—or mimeograph machines—in July of 1976, both the journal and the young community it served looked much different than they do today. Who would’ve imagined the simple four-page “Aircraft Survivability Newsletter,” as it was then titled, would eventually evolve into a 32-page, full-color, glossy technical journal distributed (in both print and electronic copy) to more than 40,000 practitioners across the country each quarter? What’s more, who could’ve predicted that the publication would still be keeping the survivability and related communities informed, connected, and inspired more than 50 years after its inception?
The journal’s remarkable half-century milestone is even more remarkable when one considers the context in which it was born. Gerald Ford was President, the Vietnam War had just ended, and the Cold War nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was as hot as ever. Moreover, in terms of U.S. combat aircraft research and development, system survivability had largely been considered only after aircraft had been fielded (and unfortunately, in many cases, lost). However, as has been extensively discussed on these pages throughout the years, a small but passionate group of engineering leaders had begun to change that. After studying the heavy air losses in Southeast Asia, they were convinced that survivability could no longer be an afterthought in combat aircraft design, development, acquisition, and testing. It was critical, they argued, that survivability be considered and addressed long before vital air systems and crews were put in harm’s way.
The result of the group’s pioneering efforts and advocacy would be not only the permanent integration of survivability into the design and development processes of all future U.S. air combat systems but also the formal establishment of survivability as a robust engineering discipline and vibrant community. And the journal would be there to help tell this important story.
Volume 1, Number 1
From the very first issue (shown in Figure 1), the original publishers—early leaders of the Joint Technical Coordinating Group on Aircraft Survivability (JTCG/AS), the predecessor to today’s Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP)—made their objectives clear. The publication was intended to “[achieve] greater dissemination of pertinent data regarding current technology, research projects, and advanced developments,” as well as “open additional channels of communications for the further advancement of the Aircraft Survivability Program.” “Only by letting the ‘light shine in’,” the original editors wrote, “[would the community] be able to achieve [its] goal of maximum aircraft survivability and reduced vulnerability in a combat environment.”
Some of the journal’s first light shone on the survivability activities related to the (then) state-of-the-art air systems and technologies. It’s a little hard to imagine today, but in the summer of ’76, the A-10 Thunderbolt and F-15 Eagle were the glistening new (and still unproven) warbirds in the sky, the UH-60 Black Hawk was still in prototype, and “stealth” was still just a concept that developers were trying figure out how to turn into reality. Moreover, terms such as “high-performance modeling,” “unmanned aerial systems,” “system of systems,” “artificial intelligence,” “cyber survivability,” and even “the Internet” remained years (or, in some cases, decades) away from entering the community’s vernacular.
Incidentally, it’s also interesting to note that the A-10 (which would go on to achieve legendary status for its close air support toughness), the F-15 (which would eventually record a perfect 100-0 dogfighting record in combat), and the UH-60 (which would go on to become the combat-proven, ultra-reliable Swiss Army knife of rotorcraft) are now considered the first examples of true survivability-based aircraft design and development. And that each of them continues to be regarded for their survivability excellence after so many years of operation is a testament not only to the early survivability pioneers but also to the countless other practitioners who’ve worked diligently to improve these systems and so many others over the past half century.
The Changing Faces of Aircraft Survivability
Arguably the most noticeable change the ASJ has experienced over its 5-decade lifespan has been in its physical appearance. The publication has undergone numerous facelifts through the years, including at least five major redesigns of its cover and masthead (as shown Figure 2). In the early ‘90s, the journal would also transition to glossy paper, giving the periodical the full look and feel of a modern magazine (or “slick”).
Another significant change has been in the way in which the journal has been disseminated and read. Initially, just a few hundred hard copies were printed and distributed each quarter. By 1988, however, that number had soared to more than 9,000. Then, with the emergence and rapid expansion of the Internet and email in the late ‘90s and beyond, the journal would shift from an all-print distribution to a hybrid print and electronic distribution. Currently, the ASJ is distributed to more than 2,000 print recipients and 38,000 email recipients each quarter, with each issue also posted and archived (in both HTML and PDF formats) on the JASP website for free download and ongoing access.
Informing the Community Without Educating the Enemy
Despite these changes, the journal has also been able to retain several constants that have been key to the publication’s longevity and success. One has been the wide variety of content, authorship, and available resources that the editors have tried to include in each issue. From the beginning, the ASJ has strived to be not just the publication for the survivability community but the publication of the survivability community. Thus, much of the journal’s content and coverage has come from readers themselves. Subject-matter experts (SMEs) from across Government, industry, and the Services have regularly served as the primary “reporters” of current research and test programs; new technologies, methodologies, tools, and models; emerging organizational capabilities and accomplishments; and community news, events, awards, and new publications.
The true core of the ASJ, of course, has always been its technical articles (shown in Figure 3). In the first issue, the technical discussion focused on the ignition properties of JP-4, JP-8, and other aviation fuels and liquids. But that topic would be just the first of many the journal would tackle. In fact, to flip through the ASJ’s 5 decades of issues is to take a virtual tour through the history of developing technologies that have helped the U.S. military achieve, maintain, and enhance its air survivability and supremacy over the past half century. Technical subjects have spanned the full spectrum of fixed-wing, rotary-wing, hybrid, and unmanned air systems and subsystems; of ballistic and nonballistic threats (including the latest hypersonic, electromagnetic, and cyber threats); and of mission profiles and environments (including the emerging space environment).
The journal has also been there to tell the story of the remarkable digital transformation that has occurred throughout the community, as many powerful computerized tools and models have emerged to help practitioners more rapidly and completely answer many important survivability questions. As has been said many times, these tools have reduced survivability-related calculations, testing, and assessment timelines from months, weeks, and days to just hours, minutes, and seconds.
Of course, trying to capture and convey all the developments and details of a rapidly growing and busy technical community has also presented many challenges for ASJ editors and publishers. One challenge has been page space. It’s simply not been feasible to discuss all of the programs and activities from across the field in a 32-page issue. Thus, themed issues have often been used to help plan, organize, and present content, and longer technical articles have often been condensed into shorter summaries and overviews.
Security has also been an ongoing challenge for the journal. The inherently sensitive nature of U.S. aircraft survivability work has often made it difficult to publish certain technical, methodological, tactical, and strategic information in the ASJ’s publicly releasable format. Authors and editors have thus had to become skilled at “informing the community without educating the enemy.” In some cases, technical details (or entire discussions) have had to be omitted or “sanitized” to properly protect classified or otherwise sensitive information. Nonetheless, the public release format has remained an important part of the ASJ’s longstanding ability to widely share information, connect practitioners across many different fields and organizations, promote technical innovation and collaboration, and grow and sustain journal readership and the survivability community.
The People of Survivability
The journal has also long recognized that the survivability story is not just about tools, technologies, and programs but also about the organizations and individuals working every day to help ensure the safety and success of the U.S. Warfighter. For example, the first issue explained the primary responsibilities and activities of the JTCG/AS; detailed the specialized capabilities of the Naval Weapons Center; and listed 20 other Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA organizations whose survivability activities and capabilities would be featured in subsequent issues.
Also featured in the first ASJ issue were the contributions of Air Force Maj. Gen. George Sylvester, the keynote speaker of that year’s Aircraft Survivability/Vulnerability Symposium. This tradition of personnel recognition would continue to be a hallmark of the ASJ. In particular, the Pioneer in Survivability award series (shown in Figure 4) would be established in 1998, followed by the Young Engineers in Survivability and (now) the Excellence in Survivability award series. To date, the journal has honored more than 65 community members with these biographical write-ups, as well as published countless other award recognitions, promotion/retirement biographies, and personal tributes. In addition, though many of the early community and ASJ leaders have now passed on, the journal has been able to help keep alive many of the important stories of their life-saving accomplishments for the benefit of current and future survivability generations.
In 2008, the ASJ would also begin running the “JCAT Corner” article series in each issue to provide regular updates on the Joint Combat Assessment Team (JCAT) and its important efforts to provide real-time, tri-Service, hands-on support to the survivability community and mission. In more recent years, the journal would also add other types of articles and features as well, including first-person pilot perspectives, accounts of historical incidents, and tributes to notable aircraft and anniversaries that recognize survivability excellence (see Figure 5).
Finally, throughout its lifetime, the ASJ has continually recognized the opportunity and importance of using the journal to help build community collaboration, cohesion, and growth through the promotion of in-person community gatherings and events. These meetings have been where some of the community’s most important technical information has been exchanged; most important organizational and personnel connections have been made; and most important tools, technologies, and programs have been born. Thus, from the start, the journal would continuously publish a comprehensive calendar of upcoming survivability-related conferences, symposia, training courses, and meetings, as well as report on many of these events after they occurred.
The Skies Ahead
As far as the next 50 years of the journal goes, one can only wonder what a summer 2076 ASJ issue—the centennial ASJ issue!—might look like. Will any publications still be printed on paper by then, or will everything be online and cloud-based? Will articles still be “read,” or will technical information be disseminated via virtual-reality-type devices with integrated imagery, audio, and video? And will personal “authorship” still be a thing, or will content be largely (or even exclusively) generated by AI and maybe even customized for different reader types and preferences?
And what about the survivability discipline itself? Will all combat aircraft be stealth aircraft by then? Will there even be such a thing as an “aircrew,” or will everything be unmanned and/or autonomous? And what about space; will it be the primary domain in which our air systems must fight and survive?
Admittedly, some of these questions sound pretty extreme in the context of today. But if—as the old saying goes—the past is truly prologue, we, like the survivability practitioners of 1976, are likely not even imagining the most radical and remarkable concepts and developments that lay just beyond the horizon.
Perhaps the future of both the journal and the discipline will parallel the differing flight paths of the previously mentioned A-10, F-15, and UH-60 aircraft. Some aspects may be like the A-10, which did its job well for a long time and now, after much debate, finally seems to be ready to fly off into the sunset and give way to more modernized systems. Other aspects may be like the F-15 and UH-60, which have continued to be adapted, modernized, and given new life and missions in the rapidly changing world of multi-role, collaborative, and unmanned combat aviation.
One thing that likely won’t change, however, is the original goal of the ASJ founders—to continue to shine the light on the technologies, people, and organizations that are protecting our aircraft and crews. And hopefully, if all goes well, the journal will still be around for another 50 years, helping to tell the remarkable stories of survivability.
