System-of-Systems Engineering for Air Force Capability Development: Executive Summary and Annotated Brief
Abstract
Over the past several years, it has become increasingly apparent that although the United States Air Force buys systems in isolation, it does not use systems in isolation. An ever-changing mix of systems, which enable their warfighting capabilities, supports the missions of the Air Force. In an ideal world, the Air Force would build each system involved to satisfy specific and well-understood requirements. Then, each system would fit into its pre-established USAF role supporting whatever capability military leaders called upon for action. The reality is that the Air Force does not build all systems through a homogenous acquisition and development process, it does not use all systems in ways foretold at their inception, and not all systems find themselves used among predicted interface partners. Especially in wartime, the exigencies of war sometimes force a reconfiguration among systems or even demand systems behave in ways that create new capabilities. When such changes occur, the users in the field oftentimes find the tasks associated with reengineering interconnections among systems falls upon them. Increasingly, awareness of the need to support fungible interconnection among systems has driven the Air Force and systems engineers to start thinking about the demands of system-of-systems configurations and the engineering issues associated with building and supporting them. The "System-of-Systems Engineering for Air Force Capability Development" study was chartered to address the challenge of developing systems-of-systems that are more effective. The study panel conducted this study in response to a request by the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA442612
Entities
People
- Alex Levis
- Charles Croom
- Dan Hastings
- Ed Glasgow
- John Brock
- Mica Endsley
- Natalie Crawford
- Richard M. Murray
- Thomas Saunders
- Wanda Austin