Recent engineering experiences with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) highlight the need to analyze the BMDS System of Systems (SoS) including the numerous potential interactions between independently developed elements of the system. The term “interstitials” is used to define the domain of interfaces, interoperability, and integration between constituent systems in an SoS. The authors feel that this domain, at an SoS level, has received insufficient attention within systems engineering literature. The BMDS represents a challenging SoS case study as many of its initial elements were assembled from existing programs of record. The elements tend to perform as designed but their performance measures may not be consistent with the higher level SoS requirements. One of the BMDS challenges is interoperability, to focus the independent elements to interact in a number of ways, either subtle or overt, for a predictable and sustainable national capability. New capabilities desired by national leadership may involve modifications to kill chains, Command and Control (C2) constructs, improved coordination, and performance. These capabilities must be realized through modifications to programs of record and integration across elements of the system that have their own independent programmatic momentum. A challenge of SoS Engineering is to objectively evaluate competing solutions and assess the technical viability of tradeoff options. This paper will present a multifaceted technical approach for integrating a complex, adaptive SoS to achieve a functional capability. Architectural frameworks will be explored, a mathematical technique utilizing graph theory will be introduced, adjuncts to more traditional modeling and simulation techniques such as agent based modeling will be explored, and, finally, newly developed technical and managerial metrics to describe design maturity will be introduced. A theater BMDS construct will be used as a representative set of elements together with the interstitials representing the integration domain. Increased attention to the interstitial space of the overarching BMDS SoS construct and applying appropriate technical rigor and engineering due diligence with these added tools should greatly assist the BMDS in realizing its potential. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 14: 87–109, 2011
A "system of systems" (SoSs) provides functionality beyond that offered by its constituent systems. The functionality emerges over time, and there is a need to predict and affect the system's convergence toward the desired functionality. The convergence of a collaborative SoS is dependent on political, economic, societal, and technological (PEST) factors. In this paper, the authors propose a model for predicting and analyzing the convergence of SoSs. We use the United States smart grid, a collaborative SoS, to demonstrate the power of the developed model. The United States smart grid's convergence depends on factors such as energy policies, roadmaps, grants, cost recovery, consumer support, and sufficiency of technological solutions. We constructed a dynamic Bayesian network to predict the convergence and then assess the influence of each of the PEST factors. The output of the convergence model can be used to predict and communicate technical progress to stakeholders and to analyze and optimize the investment of resources to affect the PEST factors. Understanding the convergence of SoSs is important for making sound business and technology investment decisions. This approach of predicting and analyzing convergence should be extended to other SoSs. C⃝ 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 20: 357-378, 2017
As the integration and interoperability demands among heterogeneous systems increase, Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) have provided a potential technical solution to integrate these complex systems within an enterprise framework. This paper presents experimental results and future approaches to assess the employment of an SOA within a hard real-time (stringent time constraints), deterministic (maximum predictability) combat system (CS). For these systems with hard real-time requirements, web services have generally not demonstrated the necessary and sufficient characteristics to satisfy these stringent needs. Specifically, this paper provides a characterization of hard real-time, deterministic systems; results from a recent small-scale experiment to assess various SOA products in this demanding architecture; and the future direction to research real-time applications in a representative operational environment. Experimental results to date indicate that emerging real-time technologies are contributing to improved performance and better predictability within the internal processing latencies of web service applications. This preliminary research focuses on a simplistic computing architecture, but it provides a good baseline for more detailed experimentation using the actual systems. If successful, this research could lead down a path to increase synergy and consolidate computing infrastructures by supporting multiple user domains with the potential of reducing cost for both acquisition and lifecycle support.
“While defending our homeland and defeating adversaries in war remain the indisputable ends of seapower, it must be applied more broadly if it is to serve the national interest.” This concept from A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower (Conway et al. 2007), stresses the importance of protecting the interests of the United States while promoting security, stability, and trust. This paper explains the challenges faced by the naval enterprise, methods for improving our force planning and acquisition processes, and the need for naval capabilities to be transformed through the co‐evolution of technology and organizational cultures. A force structure framework that provides a flexible, adaptive, and affordable force without regard to the future state of the world is a critical requirement in the “Next Navy” and the “Navy after Next.” The agility, scalability, and flexibility of an adaptive force provide commanders a range of options when responding to a crisis situation. This paper will identify characteristics and capabilities required to address the range of threats that exist today as well as threats expected in future environments.
The research presented in this paper examines the accuracy of technology maturity assessments at a key decision point in the acquisition life cycle. This study utilizes statistical means to quantify the confidence interval of technology maturity determinations and established confidence intervals for various population sizes using a Monte Carlo simulation. The study identified with a 95% confidence that there are no significant differences in the standard deviation or the confidence interval ranges of heritage developments and new developments at a key decision point. The significance of this finding is the margin of error, which is derived from the standard deviation and used to compute confidence intervals, measures accuracy. One challenge facing the field of system engineering is the ability to accurately measure technology maturity when transitioning from formulation to implementation. Correctly assessing the technology maturity of a development is crucial for the organization's ability to manage performance, cost, and schedule. The findings from this research have the potential for minimizing inaccurate maturity determinations, which could lead to reductions in unsatisfactory technical performance and programmatic overruns. C⃝ 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 20: 188-204, 2017
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