Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and Test and Evaluation (T&E) of Radiation Detectors for CWMD Missions

Abstract

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has a test and evaluation (T&E) program intended to inform Department of Defense (DoD) and other government operators about the performance of radiation detectors. For the last 10 years, Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), DTRA’s test agent, provided T&E services by planning, executing, and reporting on annual radiation detector test campaigns. The specific structure of the test campaign depends on DTRA and end-user requirements, but the test process had been refined to use a general format that examines the technical performance and the usability of the detectors as they relate to realworld operations. Recently, modeling and simulation (M&S) tools have been introduced into the T&E program to aid in test planning and anomaly reporting. In this paper, we describe the DTRA radiation detector T&E process and the status of M&S tools incorporation.