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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
	FY98 Annual Report

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The M2A3 and M3A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle System (BFVS) are improved versions of the M2A2 and M3A2 BFVS. The BFVS-A3 includes enhancements intended to improve lethality, mobility, survivability, and sustainability. Additionally, these enhancements are intended to provide increased situational awareness and digital command and control capabilities necessary to provide information superiority to the dominant maneuver force. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Abrams Tank are the two central components of the dominant maneuver digital force.

The mission of the BFVS is to provide mobile protected transport of an infantry squad to critical points on the battlefield and to perform cavalry scout missions. The BFVS will also provide overwatching fires to support dismounted infantry and suppress or defeat enemy tanks and other fighting vehicles. BFVS-A3 enhancements include:

• Incorporation of Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below (FBCB2) Embedded Battle Command (EBC) to share command and control and situational awareness with all components of the combined arms team.



• The improved Bradley acquisition system and commander's independent viewer, both 2^nd generation Forward Looking Infrareds, to improve target acquisition and target engagement.



• A position navigation system with a Global Positioning System receiver to enhance situational awareness.

In March 1994, the Army awarded a contract to United Defense, Limited Partnership, to begin the EMD phase. In June 1997, the Army approved the first LRIP for 35 systems with an FY98 option for an additional 18 systems. The Army approved this option in November 1997. A subsequent LRIP decision for 78 systems is scheduled for January 1999. The IOT&E for the BFVS-A3 is scheduled for 3/4QFY99. This IOT&E is planned to be conducted in conjunction with the FOT&E 3 for the M1A2 Abrams System Enhancement Program.

Throughout this fiscal year the Live Fire IPT has been meeting regularly in preparation for live fire testing. Specific efforts included negotiation of the internal and external stowage configuration of live ammunition, the level of maturity required for the onboard software, review of the Event Design Plan, and investigation of how closely the live fire vehicles represented the production (LRIP) vehicles. The LFT&E is currently scheduled for 1QFY98-3QFY99. The first full-up shot is scheduled for December 1998. The BFVS-A3 full-rate production Milestone Decision is scheduled for 1QFY00.

Limited User Test (LUT) I, the first significant operational test for the BFVS-A3, was conducted in December 1997. The LUT employed two BFVS-A3's with their initial software version 1.1 in gunnery and position location/navigation exercises. The system met the operational requirements document gunnery requirements under the conditions evaluated. Additionally, BFVS-A3 satisfactorily demonstrated its capability with the tested software to successfully navigate with the position locating system and electronic map. Digital vehicle position updates were also successfully transmitted between vehicles. However, during LUT I, the system experienced numerous computer lockups requiring maintenance action. These lockups identified areas requiring further technical development in order to meet suitability requirements in future testing.

LUT II, scheduled to be conducted in September/October 1998, was redesignated as an Operational Experiment (OE) due to its reduced scope. Delays in the development and integration of platform software led to this reduction. The resulting OE was planned to consist of crew and platoon gunnery and limited force on force maneuver trials. Further delays experienced in the execution of the gunnery phase of the OE resulted in the cancellation of the force-on-force maneuver phase. This less extensive event has reduced the availability of data on which to base an assessment of the progress of system development.

The Controlled Damage Test, the first phase of the LFT&E, was initiated in September 1998. This effort uses non-destructive test methods to impose potential damage mechanisms into the Bradley system; i.e., electrical shorts and disconnects. The objective of this test is to more fully understand the interoperability of the Bradley system.

The most significant T&E issue yet to be resolved is to fully define the T&E strategy for digital command and control in the BFVS-A3. This capability is to be provided by Embedded Battle Command (EBC) which is fully compatible with Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below. The BFVS-A3 IOT&E will be conducted without EBC, thus requiring additional BFVS-A3 OT after the integration of EBC to evaluate the system's digital C2 requirement. The EBC software will be provided the BFVS-A3 as a Horizontal Technical Integration Program and will not be available until after the IOT&E. The Army's current plan is to test BFVS-A3 with EBC, in conjunction with the FBCB2 IOT&E, scheduled for October 1999. This approach contains considerable risk due to the limited time available for complete EBC integration into the BFVS-A3 after its IOT&E. It is also dependent upon EBC software being available by this time. As a result, it is problematic whether a full evaluation of all system requirements will be completed prior to the BFVS-A3's full-rate production decision in December 1999. DOT&E continues to work closely with the Army to satisfactorily address this issue. However, the Director has not yet approved a TEMP update addressing how the digital C2 component of the BFVS-A3 will be tested and evaluated. In addition to EBC integration, software development for other non-C2 related functions, particularly on-board vehicle diagnostics, remains a significant technical challenge facing the program.