Case Study: Test Equipment
Client: Swiss MoD
Contract Date: 2007 – 2008
Contract Type:
14 month contract with the Swiss MoD with the following objectives:
- To reach Initial Operational Capability with optimised Interoperability (IO) between a Command and Control system (known as FLORAKO) and F/A-18
- To prove Swiss Link 16 operational and functional capabilities
- To acquire practical knowledge and experience in Link 16 operations
- To promote effective information exchange among all parties of the Swiss Link 16 community
The Swiss Air Force embarked on a programme to integrate MIDS/Link 16 into the F/A-18 fighter and a Command and Control (C2) system (known as FLORAKO). This project required a live testing phase and therefore test equipment was required in order to capture data and prove if the trials were a success by analysing the data. Whilst this may sound straightforward, add a multi-terminal architecture, with ground stations displaced over a wide geographic area in mountainous terrain, and the issue becomes magnified in its complexity.
Fortunately, several members of the 3SDL team had significant experience of testing understood the need to accurately capture data and also where that data should be captured within a system test. Taking line of sight issues into consideration and with our knowledge of the test equipment market place we were able to help our customer with the procurement of an airborne test platform. This satisfied the live test requirement of capturing data by independently recording the MIDS/Link 16 network that was established between FLORAKO and the F/A-18 fighter. We also successfully suggested the capturing of data on several other important points of the FLORAKO system in order to have end-to-end traceability of data throughout the system.
Our help in the test equipment area of this project resulted in analysis being conducted on all of the problems observed during the live test program. This added benefit to our customer in that no system problems slipped through the net, the test equipment and processes were in place for future trials work, and the discovery of system issues at an early stage of the program represented significant cost savings to the project.
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