Results for “WEAPON SYSTEM MANAGEMENT” — Page 2

DOE OSTI2024

Los Alamos National Laboratory Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program: FY23 Annual Progress Report- Compendium of Project Summaries

The project summaries are organized by Capability Pillar – Complex Natural and Engineered Systems, Information Science and Technology, Materials for the Future, Nuclear and Particle Futures, Science of Signatures, and Weapons Systems. Project summaries for continuing projects appear first, followed by project summaries and technical outcomes for projects that ended in FY23.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

NASA NTRS1993

Automated Assembly Center (AAC)

The objectives of this project are as follows: to integrate advanced assembly and assembly support technology under a comprehensive architecture; to implement automated assembly technologies in the production of high-visibility DOD weapon systems; and to document the improved cost, quality, and lead time. This will enhance the production of DOD weapon systems by utilizing the latest commercially available technologies combined into a flexible system that will be able to readily incorporate new technologies as they emerge. Automated assembly encompasses the following areas: product data, process planning, information management policies and framework, three schema architecture, open systems communications, intelligent robots, flexible multi-ability end effectors, knowledge-based/expert systems, intelligent workstations, intelligent sensor systems, and PDES/PDDI data standards.

Stauffer, Robert J.↗

DOE OSTI2022

National Ignition Facility. Facility and Infrastructure Systems Maintenance Plan

Ensuring the reliability of the NIF, including its support systems, laser systems, target diagnostic systems, and utilities, is essential to the availability of the NIF in its support of NNSA missions. NIF is a key capability in the DOE Stockpile Stewardship Program and supports high energy physics experiments for nuclear weapons, energy, and astrophysics applications. High system reliability provides opportunities for shots and scientific discoveries with opportunities to enhance and upgrade capabilities. This Maintenance Plan (MP) identifies the policies and procedures used to perform and support asset management of the NIF Facility and Infrastructure Systems (FInS), NIF Lasers & Alignment (LASE), NIF Target Experimental Operations (TOPS), NIF Target Area Science and Engineering (TASE), and NIF&PS Control Systems (NCS). The FInS systems include the facility, HVAC, contamination control, beampath, and Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) as well as utilities which create the beampath environments, such as vacuum, argon, or clean dry air. The LASE systems are Programmatic systems which include laser diagnostics, alignment, power conditioning, pulsed power, and input laser systems. The TOPS and TASE systems are also Programmatic systems which include target and diagnostic delivery systems and positioners, many different insertable and fixed target diagnostics, and cryogenic and target gas fill systems. Finally, the NCS systems include both software and hardware for industrial and shot operation control systems. Policies governing administrative and operational practices related to maintenance of FInS, LASE, TOPS, TASE, and NCS systems are described in this plan. In addition, the plan provides processes and procedures for managing, tracking, and documenting the work. This document, the NIF Operations Management Plan, NIF-5020544 (Ref. 1), and NIF Shot Operations Plan, NIF-5018506 (Ref. 2), together satisfy the requirements of the Conduct of Operations. Duties, responsibilities, and reporting requirements of the various positions associated with FInS, LASE, and TOPS maintenance are detailed in this plan. The FInS systems include both Real Property systems with asset management requirements specified in DOE Order 430.1C (Ref. 3) and Programmatic systems. In addition, for FInS, there is a list of the System Level Maintenance Plans (SLMPs) in NIF-1007419198 (Ref. 4) which provide the system descriptions and maintenance plan and schedule. In addition, the list includes the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and Experience Centered Maintenance (ECM) evaluations that have been performed for applicable FInS systems as well as reliability criticality per Section 3.5. The -AM version of the NIF Maintenance Plan focuses on the reliability program for FInS, LASE, TOPS, TASE, and NCS within the context of the overall NIF Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) program and incorporates changes since the -AL version from August 2011 and has been updated to be fully consistent with the updates to Ref. 1. It also includes asset management considerations, updates to the Work Order (WO) process within the NIF Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) which is EAM infor® System Maintenance and Reliability Tracking (SMaRT) (Ref. 5), and updates to metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

NASA NTRS1992

Performance assessment in complex individual and team tasks

Described here is an eclectic, performance based approach to assessing cognitive performance from multiple perspectives. The experience gained from assessing the effects of antihistamines and scenario difficulty on C (exp 2) decision making performance in Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) weapons director (WD) teams can serve as a model for realistic simulations in space operations. Emphasis is placed on the flexibility of measurement, hierarchical organization of measurement levels, data collection from multiple perspectives, and the difficulty of managing large amounts of data.

Eddy, Douglas R.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Cockpit resource management skills enhance combat mission performance in a B-52 simulator

A cockpit resource management (CRM) program for mission-ready B-52 aircrew is developed. The relationship between CRM performance and combat mission performance is studied. The performances of six crew members flying a simulated high workload mission in a B-52 weapon system trainer are evaluated. The data reveal that CRM performance enhances tactical maneuvers and bombing accuracy.

Povenmire, H. Kingsley↗

DOE OSTI2022

LANL Regular Employee Population and Demographics, FY15-21

This document summarizes an effort to compile and analyze the LANL regular employee population’s demographic attributes and trends between FY15-FY21 using MicroStrategy, a web-based data analytics and visualization tool. LANL’s HR Division collected and prepared data for the Weapons Program’s annual reporting activities for the 2017 through 2023 NNSA Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (SSMP). Los Alamos workforce data represent the fiscal year-end snapshot of the permanent employee population who are categorized by the Common Occupational Classification System (COCS). This work enables further analyses, including trends for all workforce attributes presented in the SSMPs as well as a definition of a crosswalk between COCS categorization and the internal laboratory job classification hierarchy. Data for other sites and the federal workforce, as shown in the SSMPs, are included and corresponding figures can be visualized within the MicroStrategy tool. A portable, Excel-based version of the tool was developed and shared with the multi-site workforce working group. This summary highlights selected aspects of the LANL regular workforce. The data analyses and visualizations communicate insights within three major themes regarding permanent LANL employees: 1) demographic transformation, 2) attrition, and 3) skills. Regarding demographic transformation, and consistent with the general trend across the enterprise, early career regular employees are the fastest growing group, with growth ranging between 12-34% year-to-year over the seven-year period analyzed. The data also reflect effects of internal and external factors on attrition; the large spike in separations in FY18 aligns with the contract transition from LANS to Triad and the dip in attrition between FY20-FY21 is likely a result of the global pandemic. The population of regular employees in general management, engineer, and operator COCS categories have the fastest growth rates amongst all the occupational categories. The MicroStrategy and Excel tools provide additional details and trends.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Test Information Management System (Report FY 2020 and FY 2021)

Delivery Environments supported work in Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021 to develop the Test Information Management System (TIMS). This effort involved creating a suite of tools consisting of a database and the uploading and downloading scripts. It has been demonstrated that the TIMS database is suitable for archiving raw measurements performed on various measured test articles. The TIMS database has been populated with data from the TRUST projects in FY 20 and FY 21. This included the functional data in the Sensors records as well as metadata stored in records in several other tables. The performed work demonstrated that a database archiving validation test data and integrating it with engineering analysis simulations has a great potential to increase the efficiency, responsiveness, and confidence in the modeling, simulation, and validation efforts for future (and current) weapon systems and assemblies in normal and abnormal environments. In this report, we also discuss how the records belonging to the same project should be arranged, what are the minimum requirements for linking the records using the tabular links, and we provide several recommendations to the projects engineers and the database administrator to improve the TIMS database.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS1993

Cockpit checklists - Concepts, design, and use

Although the aircraft checklist has long been regarded as a foundation of pilot standardization and cockpit safety, it has escaped the scrutiny of the human factors profession. The improper use, or nonuse, of the normal checklist by flight crews is often cited as a major contributing factor to aircraft accidents. This paper reports the results of a field study of flight deck checklists and examines this seemingly mundane yet critical device from several perspectives: its functions, format, design, length, and usage, and the limitations of the humans who must interact with it. Certain sociotechnical factors, such as the airline 'culture', cockpit resource management, and production pressures that influence the design and use of this device, are also discussed. Finally, a list of design guidelines for normal checklists is provided. Although the focus of this paper is on the air transport industry, most of the principles discussed apply equally well to other high-risk industries, such as maritime transportation, power production, weapons systems, space flight, and medical care.

Degani, Asaf↗

NASA NTRS1989

Methodology for analysis and simulation of large multidisciplinary problems

The Integrated Structural Modeling (ISM) program is being developed for the Air Force Weapons Laboratory and will be available for Air Force work. Its goal is to provide a design, analysis, and simulation tool intended primarily for directed energy weapons (DEW), kinetic energy weapons (KEW), and surveillance applications. The code is designed to run on DEC (VMS and UNIX), IRIS, Alliant, and Cray hosts. Several technical disciplines are included in ISM, namely structures, controls, optics, thermal, and dynamics. Four topics from the broad ISM goal are discussed. The first is project configuration management and includes two major areas: the software and database arrangement and the system model control. The second is interdisciplinary data transfer and refers to exchange of data between various disciplines such as structures and thermal. Third is a discussion of the integration of component models into one system model, i.e., multiple discipline model synthesis. Last is a presentation of work on a distributed processing computing environment.

Russell, William C.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Storage needs in future supercomputer environments

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Department of Energy contractor, managed by the University of California since 1952. Major projects at the Laboratory include the Strategic Defense Initiative, nuclear weapon design, magnetic and laser fusion, laser isotope separation, and weather modeling. The Laboratory employs about 8,000 people. There are two major computer centers: The Livermore Computer Center and the National Energy Research Supercomputer Center. As we increase the computing capacity of LLNL systems and develop new applications, the need for archival capacity will increase. Rather than quantify that increase, I will discuss the hardware and software architectures that we will need to support advanced applications.

Coleman, Sam↗

NASA NTRS1993

The systems engineering overview and process (from the Systems Engineering Management Guide, 1990)

The past several decades have seen the rise of large, highly interactive systems that are on the forward edge of technology. As a result of this growth and the increased usage of digital systems (computers and software), the concept of systems engineering has gained increasing attention. Some of this attention is no doubt due to large program failures which possibly could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, through the use of systems engineering principles. The complexity of modern day weapon systems requires conscious application of systems engineering concepts to ensure producible, operable and supportable systems that satisfy mission requirements. Although many authors have traced the roots of systems engineering to earlier dates, the initial formalization of the systems engineering process for military development began to surface in the mid-1950s on the ballistic missile programs. These early ballistic missile development programs marked the emergence of engineering discipline 'specialists' which has since continued to grow. Each of these specialties not only has a need to take data from the overall development process, but also to supply data, in the form of requirements and analysis results, to the process. A number of technical instructions, military standards and specifications, and manuals were developed as a result of these development programs. In particular, MILSTD-499 was issued in 1969 to assist both government and contractor personnel in defining the systems engineering effort in support of defense acquisition programs. This standard was updated to MIL-STD499A in 1974, and formed the foundation for current application of systems engineering principles to military development programs.

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2022

TRUST Contact Thermal Conductance (TRUST-CTC) Report: FY2022

The objective of the Delivery Environments (DE) Testbeds to Reduce Uncertainties in Simulations and Tests (TRUST) work package is to quantify and help increase confidence in specific areas of computational and experimental capabilities that are applicable to current and future delivery environments. More complete quantification of confidence in experimental and computational capabilities and the sufficient increase of confidence in those capabilities is critical to improving weapons engineering design, qualification, and assessment efforts that are critical to the current and future stockpile. Staff development will include cross-discipline training to provide engineers with experience in both numerical simulations and experimental methods. This work will use and provide feedback on analysis tools and experimental results databases for efficient and responsive engineering which are currently under development: engineering common model framework (ECMF), engineering quantification of margins and uncertainties (EQMU), test information management system (TIMS), and [WAVES] Analysis for Verified Engineering Simulation (WAVES).

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2023

TRUST Contact Thermal Conductance (TRUST-CTC) Report: FY23

The objective of the Delivery Environments (DE) Testbeds to Reduce Uncertainties in Simulations and Tests (TRUST) work package is to quantify and help increase confidence in specific areas of computational and experimental capabilities that are applicable to current and future delivery environments. More complete quantification of confidence in experimental and computational capabilities and the sufficient increase of confidence in those capabilities is critical to improving weapons engineering design, qualification, and assessment efforts that are critical to the current and future stockpile. Staff development will include cross-discipline training to provide engineers with experience in both numerical simulations and experimental methods. This work will use and provide feedback on analysis tools and experimental results databases for efficient and responsive engineering which are currently under development: engineering common model framework (ECMF), engineering quantification of margins and uncertainties (EQMU), test information management system (TIMS), and [WAVES] Analysis for Verified Engineering Simulation (WAVES).

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

TRUST Contact Thermal Conductance (CTC) Report

The objective of the Delivery Environments (DE) Testbeds to Reduce Uncertainties in Simulations and Tests (TRUST) work package is to quantify and help increase confidence in specific areas of computational and experimental capabilities that are applicable to current and future delivery environments. More complete quantification of confidence in experimental and computational capabilities and the sufficient increase of confidence in those capabilities is critical to improving weapons engineering design, qualification, and assessment efforts that are critical to the current and future stockpile. Staff development will include cross-discipline training to provide engineers with experience in both numerical simulations and experimental methods. This work will use and provide feedback on analysis tools and experimental results databases for efficient and responsive engineering which are currently under development: engineering common model framework (ECMF), engineering quantification of margins and uncertainties (EQMU), and the test information management system (TIMS).

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

TRUST End-of-Year Report

The objective of the Delivery Environments (DE) Testbeds to Reduce Uncertainties in Simulations and Tests (TRUST) work package is to quantify and help increase confidence in specific areas of computational and experimental capabilities that are applicable to current and future delivery environments. More complete quantification of confidence in experimental and computational capabilities and the sufficient increase of confidence in those capabilities is critical to improving weapons engineering design, qualification, and assessment efforts that are critical to the current and future stockpile. Staff development will include cross-discipline training to provide engineers with experience in both numerical simulations and experimental methods. This work will use and provide feedback on analysis tools and experimental results databases for efficient and responsive engineering which are currently under development: engineering common model framework (ECMF), engineering quantification of margins and uncertainties (EQMU), and the test information management system (TIMS). TRUST includes four testbeds and their associated engineering analysis baseline models (EABMs): 1. contact thermal conductivity (CTC); 2. nonlinear dynamics (ND); 3. sensors in environments for accelerometers (SEA); 4. sensors in environments for fiber optic displacement gages (SEFOD).

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

TRUST Nonlinear Dynamics (ND) Report

The objective of the Delivery Environments (DE) Testbeds to Reduce Uncertainties in Simulations and Tests (TRUST) work package is to quantify and help increase confidence in specific areas of computational and experimental capabilities that are applicable to current and future delivery environments. More complete quantification of confidence in experimental and computational capabilities and the sufficient increase of confidence in those capabilities is critical to improving weapons engineering design, qualification, and assessment efforts that are critical to the current and future stockpile. Staff development will include cross-discipline training to provide engineers with experience in both numerical simulations and experimental methods. This work will use and provide feedback on analysis tools and experimental results databases for efficient and responsive engineering which are currently under development: engineering common model framework (ECMF), engineering quantification of margins and uncertainties (EQMU), and the test information management system (TIMS).

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

Remote Target Engagement System (RTES) Generation 4 ("Gen 4")

RTES is designed to provide teleoperation of remote weapon platform capability at defensive physical protection locations requiring active lethal capabilities for final access denial. Multiple operator consoles allow for coordinated engagement of many weapon platforms by one or more operator consoles. This results in faster response times, increased effectiveness, and increased survivability from removing response force from harm's way increasing survivability. This software is developed against DoD requirements and has been safety and functionally reviewed and approved for operational use. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2021-1935 O

Klingler, KristopherR.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Hybrid Electric MC-12 Ground Testing Plan Chapter

In the commercial aviation world, hybrid/electric propulsion is a promising technology for fuel, emissions, and noise reduction in support of the challenging goals established by 2050 EU Flightpath/SRIA, NASA ARMD Strategic Implementation Plan, and the US Air Force ATTAM programs. Ongoing results indicate operational benefits are possible in those three technical areas. Considering military applications, hybrid/electric propulsion may yield further significant improvements by enabling new, unorthodox mission capabilities. Potential benefits are expected in the areas of vehicle signature reduction (lower noise, lower exhaust signature), usage in enhanced flight environments, minimized human-in-the-loop workload by offering a platform compatible with future goals of autonomous operations facilitation, maintenance cost reductions, and performance burst/dash energy. Additional synergies are likely when used in conjunction with energy weapons. Some potential areas of mutual interest could include, dusty operations capability, remote supply capability, extended surveillance, dispatch able power, fuel-flexible vehicles, and autonomous rescue equipment. Many of the key technologies that have been demonstrated in ground operation must now be qualified for altitude conditions. We expect to have many flight qualified powertrain systems over the next decade for military planners to choose from for new future battlefield capability. This requires new flight-weight and flight-efficient powertrain components, fault tolerant power management, and electromagnetic interference mitigation technologies. Moreover, initial studies indicate some combination of ambient and cryogenic thermal management and relatively high bus voltages when compared to state of practice will be required to achieve a net system benefit. Developing all these powertrain technologies within a realistic aircraft architectural geometry and under realistic operational conditions requires a unique electric aircraft test bed. The MC-12 surveillance aircraft is an ideal military aircraft for demonstrating some of the benefits of incorporating hybrid electric propulsion. This report details an approach for full-scale ground-based altitude testing the hybrid electric MC-12 powertrain through a full flight profile.

military electric aircraft propulsion↗