THE WEIGHT THING


THOSE LINES ARE TOO HEAVY


A line drawing of an early Javelin anti-tank missile. Halfway through the program’s EMD phase, program leaders realized it would not be able to make either the objective or threshold weight required by the user in the requirement document. The weight issue nearly canceled production of the Javelin, which was needed to replace the legacy Dragon missile. (Image courtesy of the author)


have been there have touched upon implications of design costs versus programmed funding, configuration manage- ment, diligence in measurement, testing and the managing of requirements:


• PMs must watch out for over-optimism in the area of weight. • Realize the cost and schedule implications of extensive com- ponent redesigns necessitated by weight constraints, along with their attendant configuration and reliability risks.


• Discover your weight situation early. • Revisit the requirement if you must. Consider the following, for example:


− Does it have to be one-man-portable or could it be crew- served?


− Does it really have to be C-130 transportable, or would a C-117 be sufficient?


− Does it really have to fly a round-trip sortie of 400 miles?


Users might not appreciate your questioning, but they’ll like even less your failing to deliver what was promised. We simply cannot promise to deliver things that violate the laws of physics, like a light tank, for instance, that is armed to a caliber required for lethality but with a chassis so light it cannot possibly sustain the recoil forces of mass times acceleration.


Extensive modeling and simulation may curtail an impru- dent investment and allow developers to “just say no” to the


Weight can ripple through your system design like water, as second- and third-order effects become realized when things grow out of hand.


140 Army AL&T Magazine April-June 2018


impossible. Early testing and evaluation is another real way of understanding things fully a bit later on, but that involves hard- ware investment up to the point of engineering design models and test article manufacture.


Be cognizant of the stack-up phenomenon, and manage to the gram if necessary.


Above all, whenever weight is mentioned in a development effort you are involved with, perk up your ears and look for the red flag. You might become the smartest soul in the room, if ever so briefly.


JOHN T. DILLARD, COL., USA (RET.), managed major weapons development efforts for most of his 26-year career in the U.S. Army. He is now a senior lecturer in systems acquisition management at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He has also served on the faculty of the U.S. Army War College and as an adjunct professor of project management for the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California and is a distinguished military graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a B.A. in biological sciences.


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