New weapons bring challenges in testing area

The US Air Firce (USAF) is poised to field revolutionary capabilities in which are expected to change the nature of warfare. As the US Air Force (USAF) has weapons such as laser weapons and ultra-fast missiles, it needs to establish infrastructure to evaluate them before fielding. USAF has facilities that cover the full spectrum of testing from modeling and simulation to hardware-in-the-loop to open air ranges. The USAF is studying with the DoD how to configure the ranges to support testing and evaluation of directed-energy weapons and air breathing hypersonic propulsion systems. The study would determine the instrumentation and enhanced assessment capabilities necessary to support the activities and address airspace constraints and safety issues.