Integrated developmental and operational testing to evaluate reliability

The purpose of this paper is to discuss assessing system reliability based on results from both developmental and operational testing used together. This paper will discuss the planning, analysis and reporting of reliability for a tactical military vehicle utilizing integrated Developmental Test/Operational Test (DT/OT). A series of DT and OT tests were performed in sequence with the intent of using data from all phases in assessing vehicle reliability. By introducing operationally realistic conditions during DT with Soldier involvement, the reliability degradation usually observed when progressing from DT to OT did not occur. Military reliability testing is often limited by the number of available test assets at the time of testing and the program schedule. This results in competing test priorities such as requiring assets for survivability testing versus reliability testing versus performance testing. This program leveraged the required transport to get the test assets across the country to increase reliability mileage across more test assets to assess vehicle variability in early life. Further limiting the test asset availability was the availability of the armor kits for the vehicles; some vehicles were tested with armor kits and some had no armor kits. The results from DT and OT were compared on a failure mode basis to determine whether the data could be combined; ultimately providing senior decision makers with an estimate of vehicle reliability.