LIVE FIRE TEST AND EVALUATION FOR SHIPS

Live Fire Test and Evaluation (LFT&E) is a relatively recent addition to the requirements for ship acquisition programs. Ship LFT&E requires a combination of testing and analysis in order to evaluate the vulner ability of a new acquisition ship class to the threat weapons it is li kely to encounter in combat. LFT&E supports the ship acquisition proce ss by identifying vulnerability weaknesses early in a development prog ram and enabling timely, well informed decisions regarding ship vulner ability reduction features. This paper discusses the various aspects o f ship LFT&E and how they relate to make a positive impact on a ship a cquisition program in a timely fashion. It describes a four-element ap proach to ship LFT&E consisting of (1) component, system, and full-sca le ship tests, (2) surrogate tests, (3) damage scenario-based engineer ing analyses, and (4) a Total Ship Survivability Trial demonstrating t he ability of the full-up ship to combat damage and ''fight hurt.''