3.19 In-Service Engineering, Fleet Introduction, Installation and Checkout Support

FDE Prime Contract: N61339-02-D-0001 (Zones 4 & 6). FDE has successfully maintained long-term engineering, operations and maintenance support for S3B and H60 training platforms and has concurrently modernized those platforms as well. Support for these training devices consists of: 1) Designing and developing hardware and software modifications; 2) Integrating modifications developed by separate contractors through NAVAIR Orlando; 3) Incorporating supplied documentation redlines and engineering and maintenance drawing updates into the trainer library (in conjunction with ongoing in-house modification documentation updates); 4) Assisting the ISEO with acceptance testing; and 5) Performing final integration of vendor developed software into trainer software baselines. FDE responsibilities encompass a variety of tasks including trainer engineering and impact analysis, software and hardware design and development, software and hardware verification and modification, ECP integration, configuration management, quality assurance, technical library maintenance and development, and logistics support, all of which are critical to long term support. FDE has analyzed a number of unresolved errors in training system functions and applied engineering analysis to identify the problem and its impact on the functionality of systems displays and controls. Following this analysis, FDE has developed software plans and designs to resolve the problems. FDE installed hardware and software into trainers and validated performance with rigorous tests to confirm secure integration of the modification into existing systems. Typical examples of engineering, operational and maintenance support tasks performed by FDE include: 1) A visual system upgrade on the S-3 WST to modify the visual systems and aerodynamics software; 2) an S-3B trainer modification to replicate asymmetric store weights for correct aircraft roll-off during catapult shots; 3) Correction of Static Port Blockage by incorporating SH-60F trainer model functionality into the SH-60B model; and 4) Correction of Blade De-Ice conditions by eliminating erroneous assumptions made in the simulator’s electrical system modeling.