Missile Defense Agency Target Requirements and Certification Process

Abstract

Over the last decade, considerable emphasis has been placed on tighter control over the quality and fidelity of test targets being used by Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs). To this end, the Target Verification, Validation and Accreditation (VV&A) process was developed. The VV&A process was designed to ensure that any target under development could trace its physical and signature characteristics and kinematic behavior to detailed, intelligence community-blessed threat specifications. As a target was developed, specification tracking focused on how well the target matched the threat definitions. This often affected the program's ability to conduct an effective test program, especially when the very real constraints of safety, range and treaty limitations were taken into consideration as a program approached its actual test period. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), as an organization charged with orchestrating various service-executed MDAPs, followed this strict measure of adherence to threat representation in its management of the test targets program.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADP013517

Entities

People

  • Neal Ortego

Organizations

  • Missile Defense Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Defense Systems
  • Directives
  • Dynamic Tests
  • Intelligence Community
  • Military Acquisition
  • Performance Tests
  • Specifications
  • Spiral Development
  • Target Acquisition
  • Technical Information Centers
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Validation
  • Verification
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Missile Defense Systems.