Materiel Systems Analysis

Abstract

This Program Element (PE) funds Department of the Army (DA) civilians at the United States (U.S.) Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA) to conduct responsive and effective materiel systems analysis in support of senior Army decision making for equipping the U.S. Army. AMSAA conducts systems and engineering analyses to support Army decisions in technology; materiel acquisition; and the design, development, fielding, and sustainment of Army weapon/materiel systems. As part of this mission, AMSAA develops and certifies system level performance data used in Army studies, and develops item-level performance methodology and Models and Simulations (M&S). AMSAA exercises Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA) responsibility for developing, maintaining, improving, verifying, validating, and accrediting item-level performance data and M&S for combat effects and logistics. This includes the development and maintenance of common data formats. In support of its materiel systems analysis mission, AMSAA analyzes the performance and combat effectiveness of conceptual, developmental, and fielded systems. Unique models and methodologies have been developed to predict critical performance variables, such as weapon accuracy, target acquisition, rate of fire, probability of inflicting catastrophic damage, personnel and vehicle survivability, mobility, and system reliability. AMSAA generates performance and effectiveness measures and ensures their standard use across major Army and Joint studies. AMSAA conducts and supports various systems analysis efforts across the entire materiel system life cycle, such as: Analysis of Alternatives (AoAs); system cost/performance trade-offs and early technology trade-offs to inform system and acquisition program risk assessments; weapons/systems mix analyses; business case analyses; cost benefit analyses; requirements analyses; technology insertion studies; reliability growth studies; Physics of Failure (PoF) analyses; and analytical support for Test and Evaluation. These analyses are used by leadership within HQDA (both Army Staff and Assistant Secretaries in the HQDA Secretariat); Army Materiel Command; Army Research, Development and Engineering Command; Training and Doctrine Command; Army Test and Evaluation Command; Program Executive Officers/Project Managers; and the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD)/Department of Defense (DoD). AMSAA analyses and data are used by these organizations in making acquisition, procurement, and logistics decisions in order to provide quality equipment and procedures to the Soldier, along with enhancing and sustaining readiness for the Current and Future Force. AMSAA's M&S capabilities support the development, linkage, and accreditation of live, virtual, and constructive simulations, and provide unique tools that support systems analysis of individual systems and the combined-arms environment. AMSAA maintains a significant number of models and simulations, most of which were developed in-house to address specific analytical requirements. This M&S infrastructure provides a hierarchical modeling process that is unique to AMSAA and allows for a comprehensive performance and effectiveness prediction capability that can be utilized to make trade-off and investment decisions prior to extensive and expensive hardware testing of proposed systems/technologies for the readiness of the Current and Future Force. AMSAA exercises HQDA responsibility for Army reliability methodology development. In this role, as the Army's Executive Agent for reliability and maintainability standardization improvement, AMSAA develops and implements reliability and maintainability reform initiatives that support acquisition decisions and life cycle management. AMSAA develops and applies engineering approaches that assess the reliability of Army materiel and also provides recommendations on ways to improve reliability, thereby reducing logistics footprints and life cycle costs, and extending failure-free periods for deployed equipment. AMSAA's electronic and mechanical PoF program pioneered the Army's involvement in utilizing computer-aided engineering tools in the analysis of root-cause failure mechanisms at the component level during the system design process. AMSAA's reliability engineering and PoF tools/analyses have been used extensively to support the design improvement of developmental and fielded systems used in Current Operations, resulting in improved reliability, reduced Operating and Support costs, and reduced logistics expenditures and footprints. AMSAA, in conjunction with the Army Evaluation Center (AEC), has formed the Center for Reliability Growth (CRG), which develops critical tools, methodologies, policies, formal guidance, and educational materials needed to help acquisition programs to achieve their required reliability during the acquisition process. The reliability improvements achieved for major weapon systems will translate into billions of dollars in operating and support cost savings over the life cycle. AMSAA's unique analytical capabilities are supporting AEC to assess and determine the essential analytical requirements to enhance Army evaluations and reduce extensive testing. AMSAA's support in this area improves evaluation products and results in better materiel solutions to the Warfighter. AMSAA assists in systems evaluations which support various Acquisition Category (ACAT) materiel system decisions, and provides quick response analyses in support of rapid initiatives for Current Operations. As the Army's center for materiel systems analysis, AMSAA provides the technical capability to support Army and DoD decision makers throughout the entire acquisition process in responding to analytical requirements across the full spectrum of materiel. AMSAA's unique in-house, consistent, integrated analytical capability is a critical asset that provides Army leadership with timely, independent, unbiased, reliable, and high quality analysis to support complex decisions required for Current Operations and the development of the Future Force (Strategic Portfolio Analysis Review (SPAR), Force 2025 and beyond). AMSAA's integrated set of skills and tools are focused on its core mission to develop and deliver systems analysis requirements critical in supporting Army decisions which will enable and sustain Materiel Readiness to meet the needs of the Warfighter.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2019
• Source ID: 0605706A_6_2040_PB_2019
• Service Agency Name: Army

Entities

Organizations

• United States Army

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Cyber
• Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Acquisition
• Combat Effectiveness
• Commerce
• Computer-Aided Design
• Computers
• Cost Benefit Analysis
• Department Of Defense
• Engineering
• Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
• Life Cycle Costs
• Life Cycle Management
• Life Cycles
• Logistics
• Reliability Engineering
• Risk Analysis
• Systems Analysis
• Test And Evaluation

Readers

• Life Cycle Cost Analysis
• Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.

Technology Areas

• Microelectronics