Original Date: 08/08/1994
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

CSTA developed a Firing Impulse Simulator (FIS) in response to the increasing cost of live fire testing of large caliber recoil mechanisms. The recently-installed FIS is a $6M facility designed to replicate the firing impulse imparted on a recoil mechanism during live firing. This capability allows recoil mechanisms to be exercised and tested while on the host vehicle, and enables test engineers to look at a recoil system's response over its full range of elevation.

There are several advantages of this facility over live fire testing. For example, the facility is indoors, not weather dependant, and easily set up and run. The simulator also enables engineers to exercise a mechanism in a repeatable fashion to more closely examine any particular phenomena that may occur during testing. Because FIS is computer controlled and fully instrumented, it automatically records the recoil event. It can be operated at approximately once per minute, thereby enabling engineers to examine the recoil systems response to repeated rapid firing. However, the most important benefit of the system is reduction in the cost associated with live fire testing of large caliber systems, which average $2K per round. The FIS accomplishes the same function for approximately $75 per cycle.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.