Conference highlights government, industry open discussion

10/28/2002 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- Nearly 200 government and industry test- and evaluation-professionals converged here Oct. 24 and 25 for the Air Force Flight Test Center Industry Outlook Conference.

The summit served as a forum for open discussion on how the government and industry can work together to best meet the needs of today's warfighter.

Maj. Gen. Doug Pearson, Flight Test Center commander, set the stage for participants by reminding them that America is at war and that today it is more important than ever for government and industry leaders to create new and meaningful ways of working together.

"We want to have innovation and exchange with our business partners so we can do good things for America and develop the weapon systems that the country needs to conduct business around the world," he said.

Yet Pearson cautioned those attending that the Air Force is not a business.

"We are here to serve America's military needs," said Pearson during the conference's opening session. "But at the same time, we want to be easy to do business with."

Hearing from the Air Force's test and evaluation leaders gives the defense industry a better understanding of the military's current challenges, said Greg Chapek, a program development manager with Boeing in Canoga Park, Calif., who attended the conference. This allows the defense industry to develop processes and products designed to better meet the Defense Department's current and future needs, he said.

"We all have an ethical responsibility to provide products of real value for the warfighter," Chapek said. "We have to share the responsibility for the end product as ultimately people take our systems into combat and we have to ensure the products perform and that these people come home safely."

Besides the industry-government partnership, several guest speakers and panelists expanded on the idea of seamless verification, where the boundaries separating the developmental and operational test worlds are removed.

Maj. Gen. William Peck Jr., commander of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., said with today's increasingly complex battlefield environment, it is crucial for developmental and operational test teams to work together along with the warfighter and the Air Force's system program offices from the start of the acquisition cycle.

The focus is no longer ensuring a weapon system meets contractor specifications, it is about determining early if a system will meet warfighter's needs, the general said.

Peck equates seamless verification with open-book testing, where all of the data collected throughout system development and testing processes is shared with the system program office and defense contractors. This data sharing ultimately leads to fewer redundancies in the test program and finally to capabilities-based descriptions of what a weapon system can do.

During his comments, Col. Steve Cameron, commander of the 412th Test Wing here, highlighted one example of the progress made in closing the gaps in the acquisition process. Cameron told the crowd that within a few months a test pilot from Edwards AFB will be stationed in Fort Worth, Texas, to work alongside contractors from Lockheed Martin as they develop the Joint Strike Fighter, which begins flight testing here in 2005.

To John Manclark, director of test and evaluation for the Air Force, seamless verification means no surprises for those involved in testing a weapon system. Equally important, Manclark said, is that it will reduce the time it takes to deliver systems to the warfighter.

"Time is money in the acquisition process," Manclark said, who served as guest speaker and panelist at the summit. "Every time an acquisition is delayed a month there is a bill to be paid to the workforce at the system program office and to the contractor force."

Time also translates to technology, Manclark said. Reducing the time it takes to get a system through the acquisition process not only means less costs but it gets the technology to the warfighter faster, he explained.

The two-day event wrapped up with a tour of several of the Air Force's major test programs, including the F/A-22 Raptor, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Edwards AFB's unique NF-16D VISTA -- short for "variable-stability in-flight simulator test aircraft." Also, attendees were treated to an unedited and open-ended discussion between retired Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager and his longtime colleague retired Maj. Gen. Joe Engle. The event was hosted by former "Good Morning America" co-host David Hartman.

Pearson said he expects the summit to continue and expand in coming years.

"With the rich history we have here at Edwards, combined with our current development of so many weapon systems, there is no better place to learn about the test and evaluation business than Edwards."