Testing in a Joint Environment 2004-2008: Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations from the Joint Test and Evaluation Methodology Project

摘要

The Office of the Secretary of Defense chartered the Joint Test and Evaluation Methodology project to institutionalize testing in a joint environment. The project has now finished most of its major activities. In this article we describe our key accomplishments, findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Testing in a Joint Environment refers to tests of military systems as participating elements in overarching joint systems of systems. The concept first appeared in Strategic Planning Guidance and was formally introduced as Department of Defense policy in a roadmap signed by the Deputy Secretary in 2004. Several working groups were formed to implement the roadmap. The Joint Test and Evaluation Methodology project was initiated in 2005 to continue efforts of the methods and processes working group. Throughout the past three years we have developed, tested, and evaluated a number of methods and processes for defining and using a distributed live, virtual, and constructive joint test environment to evaluate system performance and joint mission effectiveness. We briefly describe those processes, what we learned by testing them, and the extent to which they improve the ability to conduct tests, across the acquisition life cycle, in realistic joint mission environments. We also describe the results of two large-scale distributed tests -- INTEGRAL FIRE 07 and Joint Battlespace Dynamic Deconfliction 08 -- which used mixes of live, virtual, and constructive elements to test a number of systems in joint environments. Several challenges remain, and we make recommendations to continue progress toward the goals of testing in a joint environment. The Department's long-term strategy calls for evaluations of joint system effectiveness throughout all phases of all weapon systems' development and deployment.