The Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation has released its annual report on the Defense Department’s Fiscal 2013 live fire and operational testing activities. This includes some of the Air Force’s highest priority programs, such as the F-35 (see entry below). In the introduction, OT&E Director J. Michael Gilmore said testing has progressed in several of the services’ leading programs. However, DOD must focus on aligning acquisition requirements with actual mission needs and making sure these requirements reflect real-world employment scenarios. Requirements should be more reflective of operational employment, he noted. Gilmore added that since 2009, the DOT&E office has made progress in increasing the scientific and statistical rigor of its testing oversight responsibility in several programs, and has focused on improving “reliability management,” design, and growth testing, as well as better tracking of testing in software-intensive programs.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…