The Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft Modeling and Simulation Environment

he need to counter and defeat a new generation of asymmetric, agile threats has necessitated a transformation of today’s U.S. military forces. The inherent complexity associated with emerging system-of-systems operational strategies introduces many new challenges for the DoD acquisition community. Modeling and simulation (M&S) shows great promise as a tool for meeting these challenges; however, ineffi cient use of such tools can increase program costs and introduce technical risk. An evolving concept called Simulation Based Acquisition (SBA) defi nes a set of fundamental goals and principles for improving the quality, military worth, and supportability of fi elded systems. This article describes the technical implementation of SBA within the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) Program. A key component of the MMA M&S strategy is an architectural blueprint for implementing an integrated standards-based environment of M&S tools and databases that can be actively shared across government/contractor boundaries. In addition to satisfying program functional requirements, this common toolset provides an invaluable mechanism for facilitating collaboration and cooperation among all program participants across the acquisition life cycle.