Waivers and Deviations to Production Contracts for the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer Program
Waivers and Deviations to Production Contracts for the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer Program

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The AN/ALQ-165(V) Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ) program was established to provide a common defensive electronic countermeasures system for tactical aircraft. The ASPJ is a radio frequency jammer that gives the enemy a false location of U.S. aircraft. The ASPJ program was initiated in 1975 as a joint Navy and Air Force program to develop jammers. By the end of FY 1989, a requirement for about 2,300 jammers had been documented. In FY 1990, the Air Force terminated its participation in the program, and the Navy subsequently reduced its requirement for jammers to about 400 systems. The estimated ASPJ program acquisition cost is $1.3 billion, and the life-cycle cost is $3 billion (then year dollars). The ASPJ was developed, and is being produced, by a joint venture consisting of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Congressionally Requested Audit of the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer
Congressionally Requested Audit of the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ) is an electronic countermeasure system. Operational test and evaluation of the ASPJ system, using the Navy's F/A-18 aircraft, determined that the ASPJ was not operationally suitable or operationally effective, resulting in termination of production contracts in December 1992. However, the Navy plans to use the ASPJ on 33 F-14D aircraft if operational tests show that the aircraft are more survivable with ASPJ than without it. The F-14D aircraft operational tests are scheduled for FY 1995. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology supports ASPI deployment if it contributes to F-14D survivability. In addition, the DoD plans to assist the foreign sales of the ASPJ through ASPJ software integration on F/A-18 and F-16 aircraft. We initiated this audit at the request of Senator David Pryor. He asked us to evaluate Navy plans to test and install the ASPI on the F-14D aircraft, review the appropriateness of DoD integration of ASPJ software through Foreign Military Sales, and review DoD efforts to identify cost-effective self-protection systems for common use on Navy and Air Force aircraft.

Electronic Warfare: Established Criteria Not Met for Airborne Self-Protection Jammer Production
Electronic Warfare: Established Criteria Not Met for Airborne Self-Protection Jammer Production

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 8

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

ASPJ did not meet the criterion established for further production. DOD and the Navy established the criterion for ASPJ's reliability growth, and the Defense Acquisition Board approved the criterion. However, after system failures began to occur during the reliability growth testing, the Navy changed the criterion to exclude system failures attributable to software errors. With the software-induced failures excluded, ASPJ was said to have met the reliability growth criterion; and the Defense Acquisition Board, with knowledge of the change, allowed the program to proceed. If these failures had been included, ASPJ would have failed the test by a large margin. By excluding these system failures, the Navy circumvented DOD's testing standards and failed to recognize the adverse impacts of software problems experienced with other electronic warfare systems similar to ASPJ. Moreover, additional reliability growth testing conducted after the Defense Acquisition Board allowed the program to proceed shows that ASPJ's problems are continuing.