The P-8A in the IBST anechoic chamber. (NAVAIR)

The US Navy’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) has successfully conducted a series of development testing on Boeing P-8AC Poseidon mission systems in a Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) environment.

The test event is the first time LVC has been used for such testing, and effectively reduced the time and cost of what would have been a six-month, US$12m (A$15.5m) flight test campaign to less than four weeks and less than a million dollars.

“There were two firsts in this test event,” David DeMauro, senior engineer with the Integrated Battlespace Simulation and Test (IBST) department said in a NAWCAD release. “It was the first time ever that a successful dynamic Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Interrogator (IFFI) simulation was executed on the ground where both the test aircraft and the targets were moving in a simulated flight environment; and the first time that an entire P-8A was immersed in this type of dynamic LVC environment to test its mission systems on the deck.”

The tests took place in the Integrated Battlespace Simulation and Test (IBST) anechoic chamber at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland, and used tools available in the IBST Advanced Systems Integration Lab, including the Multi-Jammer Characterization (MJC) Wall.

“The resounding success of this testing event highlighted how we can use our infrastructure more effectively — testing both capability and the mission thread,” said Leslie Taylor, NAWCAD executive director, and deputy assistant commander for Test and Evaluation, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). “The cost and schedule savings alone validate the significance of LVC testing in fielding products for the warfighter.”