Our Contribution
APL has a significant evaluation role in the Air Force program to replace the aging Minuteman III system. Building on our deep experience as an independent evaluator of the Trident II system, we provided critical information that will help program leads determine the feasibility of the ground-based strategic deterrent’s ambitious accuracy threshold with currently available technology. Our research showed that an effective combination of models and flight-test instrumentation would help the Air Force meet U.S. Strategic Command accuracy evaluation goals in just 11 tests—a significant savings over the 30 tests needed with a traditional approach—and we provided similar advice concerning instrument and test requirements to meet Strategic Command’s reliability evaluation goals.