protection and lethality will be unknown to the enemy , it will be asymmetrically challenging for them to develop in a timely fashion tactics , techniques , and procedures , or materiel , to effectively counter such new capabilities .
For over a decade , the Army has touted modularity as a panacea to achieve system tailoring and flexibility . However , experience has shown that any time something is modularized , it adds some sort of interface burden or complexity . In contrast , a specific-built system will always outperform a modular system for this reason . The disadvantage to a specific-built system is it lacks an inherent adaptive capacity and means for dealing with unknowns . An optimal solution will likely be a combination of modularity and tailoring .
Real-World Tailored System Examples
Excellent historic examples of tailored systems were those developed for the amphibious assault phase of the Normandy D-Day invasion during World War II . 2 The failed Allied raid at Dieppe in August 1942 showed how difficult it was to land vehicles and men during an amphibious invasion . 3 One key lesson learned from Dieppe was that specialized armor was needed to get across soft sand and through beach obstacles . British Maj . Gen . Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart was responsible for the development of specialized armored fighting vehicles (“ Hobart ’ s Funnies ”) to counter those obstacles . Applying lessons learned from the Dieppe experience , he developed equipment and tactics that not only improved on existing designs , but also created entirely new technologies . These unusual vehicles were key enablers that allowed the Allied forces to break through German coastal defenses to effect a successful landing .
A more recent example is the Scorpion light attack jet . 4 Textron AirLand unveiled the Scorpion at the 2013 Air Force Association ’ s Air & Space Conference .
Existing low-cost do-all systems
Mission tailored
( Graphic by Robert E . Smith , PhD )
Figure 1 . How Mission or Regionally Tailored Systems Outperform “ Do-all ” Exquisite Systems at Lower Cost
The Scorpion cost about $ 20 million each . It was built from off-the-shelf components and went from concept to first flight in twenty-three months . Compare this to the exquisite F-35 Lightning , which hit the drawing board in the early 1990s and cost about $ 157 million per copy . Granted , the Scorpion and F-35 are not an apples-to-apples comparison , but comparison of the two still bounds the problem .
Bill Anderson , president of Textron AirLand , offered a closer comparison by pointing out that the United States is currently using its F-16 superjet on low-end missions in Afghanistan . 5 “ There ’ s no air-toair threat there . They are spending $ 18,000 an hour running the F-16 . You ’ re burning the life of the aircraft on missions it was not designed for ,” said Anderson . 6 In contrast , Textron is targeting a Scorpion ’ s operating cost at $ 3,000 per hour .
Enablers
Though tailoring systems offers many advantages , new challenges are created when there is a hugely varied fleet of tailored systems , especially for logistics , training , and maintenance . Capt . Eric Elsmo provides an example of deploying a tailored , modular system : A tank , or any other form of modular equipment that is not part of the first wave of combat force , would not necessarily be standard
110 July-August 2016
MILITARY REVIEW