Jesse Zapata doesn't get test anxiety. His tests solve problems, rather than present them.

Zapata, department head of Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division's (NAWCWD) Support Equipment and Aircraft Launch and Recovery, heads up a team of specialists dedicated to designing field-ready test and support equipment for the Fleet. From missile systems to radars and electronic warfare systems, Zapata's team can not only find and solve the issues, they've created tools that allow those in the field to conduct on-the-spot tests and corrections that save the Navy money and, more importantly, time.

"NAWCWD designed most of these test machines and protocols in-house here at Point Mugu," said Carlos Gutierrez, chief technologist at the Support Equipment Engineering Lab. "For the end user, it's designed so that we just have to show them how to get started, and then it's just follow the bouncing ball."

According to Kristen Hawkes, Foreign Military Sales Electronic Warfare Team lead, by designing and developing the systems and software in-house using government employees, the Support Equipment Engineering Lab saves the government thousands of dollars.

"We don't have to pay to have a tool or program developed, then also pay to use it," she explained. "We made it, we own it, and we can continue to modify it as necessary."

That in-house design capability also means that the NAWCWD team can conduct all the in-service engineering and repairs necessary to keep systems running smoothl,y and rapidly address obsolescence issues.

Hawkes added that using government employees, rather than contracting for services, also saves time when teams are on-site making adjustments or repairs.

"We can just make those changes and move forward, rather than needing to wait for a contract modification," she explained. "It saves the warfighter days and weeks of downtime; and that's critical."

For many systems, electronic and computerized simulation testing suffices. For electronic warfare systems - which operate across many frequencies and can be affected by the physical configuration of the aircraft itself - a more "real space" approach is necessary. For that, the team has the Iron Crow.

The Iron Crow is a full-scale model aircraft, originally built to model the A-6 and F-14 air frames, but scalable to mimic many modern air frames. Built of angle iron and fitted with aircraft parts as needed to properly simulate the required aircraft, the Iron Crow is the team's electronic warfare test simulator extraordinaire.

With radio frequency testing, the distance between parts and faults in the lines can affect transmission, causing drops or losses in signal strength across specific frequencies or bands of frequencies, rather than the type of "break" or fault that you'd expect to see in other electronic systems. That's why the Iron Crow is useful, Gutierrez explained.

"We can reconfigure the Iron Crow physically into any aircraft configuration as required, and we have an avionics simulator so that we can see what the end user sees," Hawkes said, noting the system can be modified in as little as an hour.

Time savings is a recurring theme with the Support Equipment team; whether it's using their custom-designed tests to pinpoint faults, saving time for the repair teams, or developing new processes to reduce down time for the end users. Safety is another paramount concern.

At the Ready Missile Test Facility, Mike Kennedy and his team are charged with ensuring the various missiles used on NAWCWD's Point Mugu Sea Range are fully and properly functional before they are turned over to the warfighters.

"We get these missiles in and complete an end-to-end test, just like the acceptance testing they go through before leaving the factory," Kennedy said. "We want to be sure they're safe and operating properly before we allow them to be fired on the range."

Kennedy's team also receives and tests missiles the end users report as faulty and want to send back to the manufacturer. Often, they can correct issues - whether it be minor repairs or just verifying the missile is, in fact, not faulty - and return the equipment to active use without the added downtime and repair costs associated with manufacturer returns.

"We're making the investment in our personnel here, and we'll see it in the longevity of our systems and our ability to respond to the ever-changing needs of our customers," Hawkes said.

Zapata was even more emphatic.

"We have a great team here, and it's only getting better," he said.


For more news from Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, visit www.navy.mil/local/nawcwd/