Naval air warfare center weapons division

Wings of Gold, Fall 2001

We have demonstrated our capabilities to both contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Members of this command have been participating with industry in the JSF's development and have supported the program in other ways. For example, as company pilots prepared for testing the JSF's short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) tests, we had them fly our AV-8 Harriers at China Lake to enhance their proficiency in this mode of flight.

The winner of the competition may have been announced by the time this article is published. In any event, we expect to be assigned tasking for the JSF soon after the decision is made.

Our biggest challenge is the same so many other commands face today: trying to do the job with fiscally constrained budgets. On the upside, I believe NAVAIR is leading the way with respect to finding innovative ways to do more with less. We developed the Enterprise Resource Planning Tool, for example. Project Sigma, as we refer to it, will allow us to implement commercial "best practices" in acquiring aircraft and weapons systems for the fleet. By having access to data in real time we'll be able to make smart business decisions resulting in better products going to the fleet sooner.

Of concern is the fact our work force is aging. We're aggressively pursuing younger people to join us so that older workers can impart some of their vast quantity of knowledge to them before they retire. We send young employees to college campuses because they can better relate to students closer to their age and sell them on NAWCWD. They can be our best salespersons. The other day I was talking to a couple of "new hires" in one of our hangars. One had been here four months, another, eight months. Both were ecstatic about their jobs because they were able to do things at NAWCWD that classmates who went into other industries could only dream about.

Test pilots are critical assets to this command. There's no substitute for putting an aircraft out into open space for test purposes with a test pilot at the controls. I believe that flight testing with test pilots will be required for the foreseeable future and that the test pilot's role may even be expanded. Our test pilots will not only be involved with traditional flight testing. With the increasing reliance upon modeling and simulation, as well as the development of Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, our test pilots will be the critical link in bringing operational experience into the development process.

At NAWCWD we pride ourselves on being on the leading edge of technology and innovation, ensuring the aircraft weapons systems we buy work effectively. Aviators at the point of the spear in Naval Aviation depend on us for that and we won't let them down.

Wings of Gold is indebted to the public affairs staffs at NAWCWD, NBVC, AEWWINGPAC and the Naval Air Reserve for their assistance in preparing the articles on pages 42-49. A special thanks goes to NA WCWD's PAO Specialist Adolph A. "Mitch" Mitchell who also took the photos of individuals in the article.