EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The Air Force Test Center is evolving from a traditional developmental test organization into an enterprise-wide capability integrator focused on shaping combat systems earlier, improving decision-making and helping deliver capability to warfighters faster.
The shift reflects a growing demand across the Department of the Air Force to move faster without sacrificing discipline, safety or credibility.
“We’ve been on a journey to become a more integrated whole for the developmental test enterprise,” said Art Huber, AFTC executive director. “What America does better than any other country on the planet is we integrate.”
AFTC conducts developmental and follow-on test and evaluation across aircraft, weapons, cyber systems, space capabilities and emerging technologies such as directed energy and autonomy. But leaders say the center’s role is expanding beyond validating systems after they are built.
Today, AFTC is working to influence capability development earlier by integrating test expertise across acquisition, experimentation and operations.
In many ways, leaders say, the challenge is less about creating entirely new processes and more about connecting expertise that already exists across the enterprise.
Historically, customers have approached different parts of the test enterprise separately. A program might come to AFTC for flight test without first connecting lessons from ground test, modeling, simulation or earlier engineering work.
The center is working to change that through a more integrated “front door” that gives customers access to broader test expertise across the enterprise.
“If a customer comes to us and says, ‘I want to go do flight test,’ a question we might ask at the beginning is, ‘Have you thought about doing wind tunnel work or ground engine testing first?’” Huber said. “We’re revising our processes to facilitate more holistic solutions.”
For AFTC leaders, the challenge is not simply moving faster. It is making earlier decisions with greater confidence.
Modern systems are also becoming more complex, threats are evolving rapidly, and senior leaders increasingly need insight before programs reach late-stage decision points.
“It’s important that you get things done fast because the adversary is moving fast, but that you do so credibly and with rigor,” Huber said. “We take pride in the fact that we are very well steeped in risk management.”
One current example is the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, which Air Force leaders have described as a pathfinder for acquisition transformation and human-machine teaming. The program is designed to shorten the timeline between development and operational capability while integrating operators, maintainers and testers earlier in the process.
“We’re working with the Experimental Operations Unit that belongs to Air Combat Command that is also flying the aircraft as we’re flying it,” Huber said. “That level of operational involvement early in development helps compress learning timelines and mature capability faster.”
The EOU is designed to help new systems become operationally relevant sooner.
“The EOU’s mission is to discover how to most effectively employ and integrate CCA capabilities through experimental operations and prototyping,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Jensen, EOU commander. “Developmental test and experimental operations are meant to run concurrently to accelerate the maturation of transformative combat capabilities.”
The approach gives operators a voice earlier in the acquisition and test cycle, helping programs stay focused on what warfighters need while balancing schedule, cost and performance.
AFTC is also changing how it manages test data. A Next Generation Data Ecosystem aims to better capture, analyze, secure and share information across the test enterprise.
“A typical F-35 test mission will produce terabytes of data,” Huber said. “Data is now seen as a very precious resource.”
Data generated during testing can help inform program decisions, operational planning and future design choices.
Developmental testing can reveal design issues, validate performance, inform resourcing decisions and help protect the people who will eventually operate and maintain new systems.
For AFTC, that means the mission is no longer just about testing what arrives at the end of development. It is about shaping capability from the beginning, integrating expertise across the enterprise and helping the Air Force make faster, better-informed decisions.