NPS has a strong history in teaching and research in aircraft survivability and air defense lethality. On Jan. 30, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) announced the creation of the Center for Survivability and Lethality.

The new center builds upon the pioneering work of Distinguished Professor Emeritus Robert Ball, who founded the first and only course on all aspects of aircraft combat survivability at NPS in the 1970s and wrote the field’s ‘bible,’ The Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability Analysis and Design. Twenty NPS faculty members from the departments of Mechanical and Astronautical Engineering (MAE), Physics and Electrical Engineering have already agreed to participate in the research and education activities of the new center.

NPS Center on Survivability and Lethality will include an industrial consortium through which industry representatives can support its research efforts, take short courses and receive up-todate publications in the field. The center will support the ongoing NPS missile systems engineering track, as well as pursue critical homeland security and military and civilian infrastructure issues that can benefit from the same analytical framework.

Supporting Organizations

• Joint Aircraft Survivability Program Office (JASPO)
  JASPO was formerly known as Joint Technical Coordinating Group on Aircraft Survivability (JTCG/AS). Established in 1971 to coordinate, provide technical data and manuals and develop survivability as a design discipline.
  
  
• Survivability and Vulernability Analysis Center (SURVIAC)
  SURVIAC is a DOD Center of Excellence providing a centralized information and analytical resource for all aspects of non-nuclear survivability, lethality, and munitions effectiveness.
  
  
• National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)
  Established a Combat Survivability Division in 1988. Added Survivability to its list of Technical Committees in 1989.

Contact Us

W (831)656-3400, C (831)917-7501,
FAX (831)656-2238
caadams@nps.edu

Christopher “Sharky” Adams is the former Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Naval Postgraduate School, and Director of the Center for Survivability and Lethality. He teaches the platform combat survivability course ME 4751. He is a former thesis student of Prof Ball’s, and his 20+ years of operational flight experience provided significant contributions during the writing of the 2nd Edition of the text. He has numerous combat sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tel: (831) 656–3400, (c) 831-917-7501, Wa-333 Email: caadams@nps.navy.mil

Dr. Robert E. Ball is a Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at the Naval Postgraduate School. He received his BS, MS, and PhD from Northwestern University in 1958, 1959, and 1962 respectively. He worked in the aircraft combat survivability discipline for more than 30 years and is the author of “The Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability Analysis and Design,” AIAA, the only textbook on the subject. He received the AIAA “Survivability Award” in 1996, the DoD DDOTE/LFT “Art Stein Memorial Cup for Excellence” in 2000, the NDIA “Combat Survivability Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2001, and his textbook received the AIAA “Summerfield Book Award” in 2007. He maintains the aircraft combat survivability education website at http://aircraft-survivability.com, and his email address is survivability@gmail.com