Cost of specifying, designing, building or buying complex uW test solutions can have a significant impact on maintaining existing contracts and winning new contracts for EW and Radar programs. From an engineering perspective, most prime contractors, research institutes and government agencies have rich, but aging, heritage of test system design. However, in a post sequestration US, where there is new sense of urgency in catching up to address to the rapid increase in threat and jamming development, Capabilities, Cost and Time to Test all need to be addressed. Furthermore, there is no longer patience for costly closed system architectures that do not provide an easy path to upgrade as technology evolves.
This paper will explore the historic perspective on test solutions, technology shifts impacting alternatives as well as resource and cost considerations when evaluating alternatives.