Record How Far a Test Was From the Fight
Distance to the Fight
Companion to You Are Not the Warfighter · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this to record how far a test was from the fight the system will be used in. The distance tells you how much weight the result can carry. Worked in “The Farther a Test Is From the Fight, the Less It Proves.”
Distance to the Fight, with a column for the testers you actually used.
| Distance | Who tests, and where | Our testers at this distance |
|---|---|---|
| D0 | The unit that will fight with it, in combat or a realistic exercise against a thinking opposing force, with the fight’s conditions present (jamming, fatigue, night, weather, degraded communications, real volume) | |
| D1 | Representative warfighters in a controlled operational test or an operator-rated evaluation (a Gauntlet-style competition) | |
| D2 | Former operators, test pilots, or experts who know the fight but aren’t in it now | |
| D3 | Field service representatives, trainers, and capability developers simulating the warfighter | |
| D4 | Program office, contractor, and developmental-test engineers simulating the warfighter |
Any result from D2 to D4 is simulated test. Attach the Simulated User Disclosure that follows to every such result. Contractor and developmental test are D4 by definition, which is correct for their purpose.