Managing Intellectual Property Relevant to Operating and Sustaining Major U.S. Air Force Weapon Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon R. Lindsay

This chapter investigates the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC), the analogue to the Fighter Command Ops Room in the modern U.S. Air Force. The air force formally designates the CAOC as a weapon system, even as it is basically just a large office space with hundreds of computer workstations, conference rooms, and display screens. The CAOC is an informational weapon system that coordinates all of the other weapon systems that actually conduct air defense, strategic attack, close air support, air mobility and logistics, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). One might be tempted to describe the CAOC as “a center of calculation,” but modern digital technology tends to decenter information practice. Representations of all the relevant entities and events in a modern air campaign reside in digital data files rather than a central plotting table. The relevant information is fragmented across collection platforms, classified networks, and software systems that are managed by different services and agencies. Thus, in each of the four major U.S. air campaigns from 1991 to 2003, CAOC personnel struggled with information friction. They rarely used the mission planning systems that were produced by defense contractors as planned, and they improvised to address emerging warfighting requirements.


Author(s):  
Edward J. Reed

The U.S. Air Force and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft are currently engaged in developing technology to minimize low-cycle fatigue maintenance requirements in future gas turbine engines. The Life Cycle Cost/Damage Tolerance Assessment (LCC/DTA) program is directed toward furthering technology development in two important areas that relate to the overall life cycle cost of advanced Air Force weapon systems: life cycle cost modeling and analysis, and damage tolerance design (DTD). A major goal of the LCC/DTA program is to establish hot-section disk design criteria specifying acceptable levels for life and maintenance actions based on minimum life cycle cost. This paper discusses the methodology developed to evaluate the weapon system LCC impact of designing to damage tolerance criteria.


1984 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 487-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Aretz

This paper presents a prototype methodology conceived by the United States Air Force to establish a baseline approach in the development of a new human factors crew station design methodology for emerging weapon systems. The goal of the project is to develop a structured human factors design methodology that can be used by designers to assess emerging technologies and relate them to system requirements and human performance characteristics so that the features of the resulting designs satisfy specific operational mission objectives.


1986 ◽  
Vol 30 (13) ◽  
pp. 1294-1295
Author(s):  
John Speigel ◽  
Mike Skinner

The Air Force recognizes the importance of Manpower, Personnel, and Training (MPT) issues in weapon system acquisition. To give supportability of future weapon systems equal consideration to cost, schedule, and performance of the system, the Air Force has set out to build an integration system to monitor MPT issues.


1988 ◽  
Vol 32 (18) ◽  
pp. 1251-1255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Potempa ◽  
Frank C. Gentner

Manpower, personnel, training and safety (MPTS) analysis is currently inconsistent and incomplete in its application to Air Force acquisitions. While many problems are managerial, MPTS analysis also suffers from a lack of adequate tools and data bases to analyze weapon system design, project MPTS requirements and suggest trade-offs. These problems are particularly acute in the early phases of the weapon system acquisition process (WSAP), making it difficult to influence design during this critical period. To improve MPTS analysis, a study is being conducted by the Air Force to define a comprehensive and integrated MPTS analytic system for use in the WSAP. The study is identifying what MPTS decisions need to be made in the WSAP, when they need to be made, and how they are interrelated. Current capabilities are then being determined by analyzing the tools and data bases available to support each MPTS decision. The analysis will identify needed improvements to existing tools and data bases and whether new ones need to be developed. This paper discusses the requirement for an improved MPTS system and then describes a variety of managerial and technical initiatives being undertaken to satisfy the requirement. The last section identifies the desired characteristics of an effective MPTS system.


Author(s):  
Justin L Anderson ◽  
Jessica M Astudillo ◽  
Zachary E Butcher ◽  
Matthew D Cornman ◽  
Anthony J Correale ◽  
...  

We demonstrate a new approach to conducting a military force structure study under uncertainty. We apply the stochastic preemptive goal program approach, described by Ledwith et al., to balance probabilistic goals for military force effectiveness and the force’s cost. We use the Bayesian Enterprise Analytic Model (BEAM), as described in “Probabilistic Analysis of Complex Combat Scenarios,” to evaluate effectiveness, expressed in terms of the probability of achieving campaign objectives, in three hypothetical scenarios. We develop cost estimates along with their uncertainty to evaluate the force’s research and development, production, and annual operating and support costs. Our summary depicts how the trade-off between various prioritized goals influences the recommended robust force. Our approach enables defense leaders to balance risk in both force effectiveness in various scenarios along with risk in different types of cost categories.


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