ASSESSING THE PRODUCT


A test player, left, a SERE School instructor and MAJ Howard Swanson, USAOTC test officer, conduct a stress fire range test while wearing the Air SS ensemble at the SERE School at Fort Rucker, AL, on Sept. 18, 2014. Tests of the Air SS highlighted the need to re-examine how an enterprise plans, resources and executes OTs in a more fiscally constrained environment. (Photo by Bradley Davis, U.S. Army Research Laboratory)


personnel on how to better prepare for the following year’s IOT, when the testing will have to be repeated with a test unit on their own installation. Additionally, the test shed light on shortcom- ings in policies, techniques and procedures.


Tese shortcomings became apparent during the Air SS CT when the one of the 10th CAB company commanders approached the test team with the offer to test components of the Air SS dur- ing already-slated aircrew progression training, for which flight hours were already paid. However, the short notice precluded the coordination required to ensure that airworthiness and safety releases were in place, PdM Air Warrior could properly field the required gear, and USAOTC could set up the right data collection methods to ensure data collected would be valid.


Ultimately, the original CT schedule was maintained, and the proposed testing could not be conducted. Issues that would have been identified earlier during the opportunity testing surfaced, and as a result, caused test disruptions that could have otherwise been mitigated or eliminated.


TEST, FIX, TEST A review of the last 13 years of operational testing through the archival lens of Army AL&T magazine and Program Manager (PM) Online shows how the challenges of planning, resourc- ing and executing OTs have evolved—or rather, have not. At their core, the same challenges from 2002 exist today in 2015. Te struggle to ensure requirements are current, adequate and attainable continues. Often, sufficient testing is not conducted and adequate time to test-fix-test is not observed, partially because the processes for doing so do not provide the flexibility required to overcome the challenges faced by PMs and PdMs when developing materiel solutions.


By the time test officers are finally assigned test units, a great deal of time and resources have been expended developing working relationships with the unit leadership and personnel during the critical last months leading up to test execution. Te result is often that Soldiers and unit leadership view operational testing as a tasking burden rather than an opportunity to train and to influence the Army’s acquisition decision-making process.


ASC.ARMY.MIL 33


ACQUISITION


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