One of the most important activities in the Production and Deployment phase is Test and

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2 One of the most important activities in the Production and Deployment phase is Test and Evaluation. And, as HSI practitioners, you should be right in the middle of these activities. iti You need to verify that the HSI requirements written into the JCIDS documents, the Acquisition Strategy, the Request for Proposals, and the Logistics and Support documents are being met. This should be an easier task if you ve developed threshold and objective values and other metrics that are testable. You also need to be in the middle of the design of the T&E activities. Other people involved in the acquisition process are going to be concerned about how fast or how lethal the system is. As the HSI practitioner, you, above all people, need to be concerned about the impact of the system on the operators, maintainers, supporters, and those who train them. And the best way to do that is to be a part of the T&E IPT. As a member of that team, you can influence the T&E activities that will allow you and the HSI domain practitioners to collect meaningful data. These data will allow you to help determine whether that the system is ready to be given to he Warfighters. This short presentation will touch on two T&E activities: the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation and the Live Fire Test and Evaluation. Operational test and evaluation is conducted on production, or production representative articles. It helps determine whether systems are operationally effective and suitable for by representative users in other words, the Warfighters, government civilians, and DoD contractors that will operate, maintain, and support the system, and those who will train them. And, the OT&E helps support the decision to move beyond the Low Rate Initial Production. 2

3 The Initial Operational Test and Evaluation is conducted before the Full Rate Production Decision Review. This slide lists the things that the IOT&E should accomplish. It also describes the contributions the IOT&E results should make to the FRP Decision Review. 3

4 The Program Manager, the Users, and the Test and Evaluation community are responsible for coordinating the T&E activities, iti but there will be scores of people that will be involved in the actual planning and execution of the T&E activities. There are a few things that have to be done to ensure that the system is ready for the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation. DoD Components have to establish an Operational Test Readiness Process if the program is on the OSD T&E Oversight List The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology has to conduct an independent Assessment of Operational Test Readiness. The AOTR is required for all ACAT ID and special interest programs. The AOTR has to consider the risks associated with the system ss ability to meet operational suitability and effectiveness goals. This assessment is based on the capabilities demonstrated in Developmental Test & Evaluations, the Operational Assessments, and the criteria in the TEMP. And, the Component Acquisition Executive has to consider the results of the AOTR before making a determination of system readiness for the IOT&E. 4

5 The DAG provides an excellent list of Best Practices for Operational Test and Evaluation. They re summarized on this slide. Learn something each year. In other words, use a phased approach to test and evaluation. Focus on the things that are important for the key system capabilities and that will best support the upcoming decision reviews. Focus on the missions that a unit or crew that s equipped with this system is supposed to accomplish. Consider the employment of the system. During planning, think about how the system will be used and how it will be sustained. Each increment must be militarily useful and supportable. For programs that are using an evolutionary acquisition strategy, the ultimate functionality may not be defined at the beginning of the program. But, each increment has to provide a militarily useful and supportable operational capability, with thresholds and objective values that are set by the user. Follow the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation guidelines for software systems. The guidelines were written in In software-years, that makes the document pretty outdated. But they re the most current according to the DAG. You ll find a copy of the guidelines on the Quick Links Panel for this module. Critical Operational Issues should be few in number. They should be operational in nature, observable, and testable. They should address mission accomplishment and survivability at an appropriate level. Provide a comparison to the baseline system. Baseline comparisons can reduce risk to the program by demonstrating potential improvement in overall mission capability even if certain technical performance requirements aren t met. Look for opportunities to integrate testing. In addition to the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation, consider other operational events and "piggy-back" on them. Also look for opportunities to integrate Live Fire Test and Evaluation. Realistically stress the system during Developmental Tests. Don t let IOT&E be the first time that the system is exposed to operationally realistic environments. And make sure the system is tested in the extreme environments it will face when it s deployed. And finally, Involve the Operational Test Agencies early. The sooner they re involved, the more thorough and useful the testing will be. 5

6 A Live Fire Test and Evaluation (or LFT&E) has to be conducted on a covered system, a major munition program, or a missile program. A covered system is major system that meets one of the following criteria: 1. The system is occupied by the user and it s designed to provide some protection to its occupants in combat. 2. The system is a conventional munitions program or missile program. 3. It s a conventional munitions program and the plan is to acquire more than a billion rounds. That s billion with a B! 4. Or, the program is a modification to a covered system that s likely to significantly affect its survivability or lethality. The LFT&E has to be completed before the system moves beyond Low Rate Initial Production. The Live Fire Test Program was mandated by the Congress in The oversight of Live Fire Testing was moved to Director, Operational Test and Evaluation in

7 The DAG also provides a list of Best Practices for the Live Fire Test and Evaluation. It s a much shorter list! First, pretest Predictions. This should be a standard practice for every live fire test event. And it s not a trivial task. It may take a lot of smart people a long time to get it done. But it s the best way to ensure that you re set up to collect the data that will be able to accurately assess the live fire event. Second, make sure the evaluation measures are the right ones. The best outcome measures may not be probabilities of kills. Instead, live fire testing may need to address the vulnerability or lethality of the system by examining the damage caused and other factors like the susceptibility and recoverability of the system. The Quick Links panel for this module has several T&E links and documents, including links to the T&E organizations for DoD, the Army, the Marines, the Navy, and the Air Force. Take a few minutes to look at the sites and to look at the T&E documents that are there. 7