Meeting Capability Goals through Effective Modelling and Experimentation of C4ISTAR Options

Over the past year, Niteworks - a UK MOD owned collaborative venture with Industry - has undertaken a variety of capability based analyses for improving decision support and operational capability of C4ISTAR. These have used a number of emerging techniques which are being developed into an overall methodology to ensure a more cohesive and data-rich, evidence-based approach to capability investigation and management. The techniques have been used to support multi-national experiments and collaborative environments and the aim is now to embed these as common practice. The approach adopted throughout is driven by explicit definition of capability goals, and addresses the need to make cost-effective decisions at various levels, consistent with achievement of these. The techniques deployed include development of architectural models that envelop and control complex webs of inter-relationships across the elements that need to be marshalled to meet these capability goals. These models have been exploited through intuitive visualisations in a controlled and interactive environment, enabling stakeholder communities to understand and explore options, guiding decision effectiveness. The paper will give examples of how the methods have been applied collaboratively and will seek to demonstrate the resulting impact on balancing short term operational needs with long term capability development.