Using simulation to examine live-fire test configurations

Man-Portable Air-Defense System (MANPADS) missiles are threats to military aircraft. Analytical models are used to help design military aircraft to survive a variety of attacks, including those from Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems. These models need accurate fragment capture data consisting of the fragment size and velocity resulting from weapon detonation. Accurate data require accurate testing which in turn requires effective test design infrastructure. We model this test infrastructure. MANPADS missiles are detonated within test arenas that have make-screens placed on the arena walls to capture fragment impact data. Our model mimics the test process and provides a quantitative metric with which to examine and compare test arena configurations. We overview our model and quality metric and offer a case study in which these are used to find a robust arena make-screen configuration.