Advanced Avionics Support for Ground Based Munitions Testing

With the high cost of flight testing advanced munitions in an increasingly austere budget environment, significant effort is being devoted to developing ground based alternatives to augment actual flight testing. For maximum realism, the capability is required to test the munitions and their carrying aircraft as an integrated system in a simulated target/threat environment. A current effort is underway at Eglin AFB to connect the Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Systems (PRIMES) facility and Guided Weapon Evaluation Facility (GWEF) via a fiber optic link, to provide such an integrated capability for certain current generation aircraft. While the current GWEF/PRIMES development activities may provide some level of current generation stores management and avionics simulation capability, next generation delivery platforms will be based on the highly integrated and modular advanced avionics concepts reflected by the Pave Pillar advanced avionics architecture and associated Joint Integrated Avionics Working Group (JIAWG) standardization activities. To ensure a continued integrated test capability as these advanced platforms evolve, the effort proposed here would define a compatible advanced avionics support capability for munitions testing and a recommended approach to its realization.