The Department of Defense (DoD) has recently
undergone radical changes as a result of the collapse
of the Soviet Union. As the United States continues to
downsize its conventional armed forces, new threats,
both inside and outside its borders, are emerging.
These new challenges include narco-traffickers, rising
crime rates, and a massive immigration of illegal
aliens that threaten to overwhelm our already strained
social programs. This scenario is complicated by
limited government resources that can no longer afford
the luxury of expensive military equipment which takes
an average of seven to ten years to design,
manufacture, and field. Government agencies
desperately need low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware that
can reduce manpower requirements and be rapidly fielded
to meet these emerging threats.
<p>
In response to these new threats and declining
budgets, a new system, TAClink, recently "came into
being". TAClink is a single-man portable system that
can receive, record, display, and play back imagery
transmitted from a surveillance aircraft.
<p>
This report describes how the systems engineering
process<sup>1</sup> was applied to the development of TAClink.
Throughout the process, the author applied the most
techniques he could to maintain a "top-down" systems
engineering approach. However, the author was
operating under severe constraints: no internal or
external funding, only a two month period to produce a
prototype, and poorly defined system requirements.
Consequently, the approach deviated from a pure systems
engineering process and became "bottoms-up."
<p>
TAClink was designed, prototyped, tested, and
delivered to the US Army last year. The system was
recently upgraded (TAClink II) using technological
advances and feedback from operational users.
The system is designed using commercial off-the-shelf
components, resulting in a dramatic savings in
size, weight, and cost over the existing Army ground
station. TAClink is currently manufactured in
Arlington, VA and has been operationally deployed with
U.S. Forces in this nation's war on drugs.
<p>
The author and Mr. Gerald V. Bate worked side-by-side
to develop TAClink for its rapid fielding. Their
combined efforts are largely responsible for the
creation and success of the system. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/41646 |
| Date | 17 March 2010 |
| Creators | Kachejian, Kerry C. |
| Contributors | Systems Engineering, Blanchard, Benjamin S. Jr., Deisenroth, Michael P., Rappaport, Theodore S. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master's project |
| Format | BTD, application/pdf |
| Relation | LD5655.V851_1993.K323.pdf |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds