Originally Posted by
Lima Juliet
PDR
If I recall correctly the Cap D was for Brimstone integration?
The content of each Capability was flexible, and varied month-by-month depending on Force Priorities. There was a document called the "Capability Release Plan" (CRP) which defined the current view of each Capability against a fixed set of dates for DACPA, MAR Recs and RTS. This document would include both "funded" and "aspirational" content, but they were clearly seperated to avoid confusion. There were always two versions of it - the "Currently contracted" and the "Current Aspiration" version - the latter was to provide a "heads up" to everyone of what the plan might change to in the near future so that if the change would cause a problem or conflict the Management Team could be informed before committing to it. Every month the joint management team would meet to consider the latest force priority changes and how they could be accomodated. Things would swap around in discussion with Forward until the best compromise on operational need versus design/production capacity versus spend profile could be achieved, and at that point a new COntracted CRP would be issued, and thgings that didn't make the cut would appear in the new "aspirational" CRP.
This was done because we both (IPT and industry) recognised that operational needs would change through the course of the programme, so rather than bitch about it we set up a contractual/management construct which incorporated the required flexibility. Most of the changes were minor, but there were some biggies. You mention Brimstone being in Cap C - IIRC that was true at the end. But the initial programme had Brimstone in Cap B and Maverick* was in Cap D, because at that time Fwd thought Brimstone was the greater need. But they changed their minds due to changes in the way the war was running and wanted Maverick urgently, so we have the famous "Maverick-Brimstone Swap" which pulled Mav back to Cap B and pushed Brimstone out to Cap D.
The ground fitment trials were as far as it ever got and there was a long and expensive road ahead, due to a number of issues, that meant it probably only ever sat upon a dream sheet along with some photos of the dummies on a jet.
No, the full CR&J trials had been completed and signed off (that was the report the TA showed Gerald Howarth), and the integration was complete only needing the relevant code to be bunged into the next OFP increment IIRC.
PDR
* The major bits of it - various different Mav modes and sub-types moved around the CRP all the time because there were so many of them!