Test And Cost Effectiveness For Meteor And Sdb-I Where No One Has Integrated Before

Gustav Alteryd, Flight test engineer, Department of Flight Test & Verification, Saab AB, Sweden
Mathias Brage, Flight test engineer, Department of Flight Test & Verification, Saab AB, Sweden

Abstract

Normally when integrating a new weapon onto a flying platform a number of different tests are required, for instance in order to verify airworthiness and functionality of the integration. A large part of these integration tests involves activities which include launching or releasing of a new store from the platform. Typically these activities aim to test safe separation, loads and stress, system integration and environmental aspects on platform or store.

It has also become more and more important to involve the customer in order to obtain an early view of the operational usability. Furthermore, in some cases there has been a request to test performance aspects of the weapon itself as well.

Today, the hunt for cost is a major factor in integration and test effectiveness is therefore a key contributor to cost reduction. It is crucial that a single launch or release fulfills multiple stakeholder’s test requests. A single test request is normally considered above standard complexity. However, the combination of several requests is therefore even more complex. But how many test requests can be combined? Is there a point when additional complexity can put the basic purpose at risk?

This paper describes the A/A Meteor and A/G SDB-I integration on the Saab Gripen Fighter, and how test requests from different stakeholders where combined with gentle compromises to obtain a solution which was sufficiently test and cost effective. From this perspective, this is “Flight Test, where no one has gone before”.