JADS Special Report on Programmatic Challenges to Distributed Testing

The Joint Advanced Distributed Simulation Joint Test and Evaluation JTE was chartered by the Deputy Director, Test, Systems Engineering and Evaluation Test and Evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense 0SD Acquisition and Technology in October 1994 to investigate the utility of advanced distributed simulation ADS technologies for support of developmental test and evaluation DTE and operational test and evaluation OTE. The program is Air Force lead with Army and Navy participation and is scheduled to end in March 2000. The JADS JTE charter focuses on three issues what is the present utility of ADS, including distributed interactive simulation DIS, for test and evaluation TE what are the critical constraints, concerns, and methodologies when using ADS for TE and what are the requirements that must be introduced into ADS systems if they are to support a more complete TE capability in the future. The JADS JTE investigated ADS applications in three slices of the TE spectrum the System Integration Test SIT explored ADS support to air-to-air missile testing the End to End ETE Test investigated ADS support to command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance C4ISR testing and the Electronic Warfare EW Test examined ADS support for EW testing. The JADS Joint Test Force JTF was also chartered to observe or participate at a modest level in ADS activities sponsored and conducted by other agencies in an effort to broaden conclusions developed in the three dedicated tests. A key finding of the JADS JTE was that the primary challenges to developing and executing a distributed test are programmatic rather than technical. The requirement to interact with multiple facilities and organizations with their associated processes presents potential problems over the full range of test planning from concept development to implementation.