Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. letter to Jerry Lewis, March 10, 2000

ROBERT L EHRLICH, JR. 2d District, Maryland ASSISTANT DEPUTY MAJORITY WHIP Congress of t be Urnteb States Щаш ot ^Representatives «aftfagton, ©c 20515-2002 March 10, 2000 1410) 838-2517 The Honorable Jerry Lewis Chairman House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense H-149, U.S. Capitol Essex. MD 21221 request your support for continued funding for the Roadway Simulator at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The Roadway Simulator is in the process of being built and will soon be capable of testing the Defense Department’s wheeled vehicles and tractor-trailer combinations in an instrumental and controlled laboratory environment. This simulator is a larger version of the type of hydraulically actuated test systems used widely by the automobile industry. The Roadway Simulator allows the Department of Defense to: 1 . Reduce the cost and time associated with vehicle development by providing earlier and more complete testing of new vehicle prototypes. The recent driveline problems with the FMTV would have been detected early in development had the Roadway Simulator has been available and would have saved the government an estimated $35 million required to fix the currently fielded trucks. 2. Safely test vehicles at their performance limits. Prototypes of future highly mobile vehicles are currently being tested at levels well below vehicle capability because inadequate facilities for high-speed testing are not available. The Roadway Simulator will safely test vehicles of this type at speeds up to 120 mph. 3. Validate computer models of vehicles. Modeling and simulation is being used extensively by engineers to reduce the cost and time of vehicle development. Unfortunately, traditional track testing does not allow for proper validation of these models. Through computer control of motion inputs and precise measurement of vehicle outputs, the Roadway Simulator can properly validate vehicle models.