The Joint Precision Airdrop System Thesis Team from AFIT has been selected as the AETC Nominee for the 2008 AFIT Systems Engineering Award.
Recent graduates Capt. Richard Brown, Maj. Arthur Cartwright, and Capt. Bryon McClain are the authors of nominated thesis, “Evaluation of Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) Aircraft Integration Concepts Utilizing Activity-Based Methodology (ABM).” The research employs an architecturally based value comparison to investigate the various options to integrate the Joint Precision Airdrop System on existing Air Force cargo aircraft. JPADS is a precision airdrop capability that improves upon traditional airdrop capability, but requires more maintenance & manpower than those traditional methods. The current production plan and three most plausible future implementations are explored using Activity-Based Methodology for constructing Department of Defense Architecture Framework compatible architectures. The comparison of these architectures is the basis for a transition plan outlining incremental integration to achieve an improved airdrop capability.
Dr. Joe Carl, Dr. John Colombi, and Lt. Col. Steve Fiorino served as the committee members for this student research project, which was sponsored by 516 AESW/JPD.
Congratulations to all!