Necessary DoD Range Capabilities to Ensure Operational Superiority of U.S. Defense Systems Testing for the Future Fight (2021) / Chapter Skim
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4 Digital Infrastructure Needs for Operational Testing
4 Digital Infrastructure Needs for Operational Testing
Pages 68-91
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From page 68... ...
This chapter examines those two complementary aspects of digital technologies in operational testing -- the challenges and the opportunities. Many of the challenges arise because of the appearance of novel military technologies whose operational testing requires approaches that are fundamentally different from anything in existence today.
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From page 69... ...
An additional challenge will be securing these data in all of their states and ensuring the data is accessible, secure, and consumable to those who need it since data generated during operational testing may be at a mix of classification levels. These combined challenges are placing growing demands on the digital infrastructure of the nation's military ranges.
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From page 70... ...
It would also not be feasible to carry out full-scale tests in a real-world environment of a weapon designed to compromise nearby computers and digital communications. Furthermore, some testing environments cannot be physically replicated on DoD test ranges.
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From page 71... ...
Under this approach, the M&S tools developed early in the program are frequently not sustained or evolved to perform an integrated function with developmental testing (DT) and operational testing (OT)
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From page 72... ...
By contrast, the simulation environment can help a user understand the system's margin in successful tests and iden tify -- through Monte Carlo analysis, for example -- those systems that might have been on the edge of failure. Thus, integrating simulation with physical testing will yield a richer characteriza tion of the system and its performance for the warfighter.
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From page 73... ...
Taking Full Advantage of the Power of Simulation The current OT&E enterprise has the opportunity to significantly broaden its use of M&S. In short, the increasing power of computers combined with the growing sophistication and effectiveness of digital models is opening up new possibilities in simulation that should be taken advantage of by the nation's military ranges.
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From page 74... ...
In this approach, illustrated in Figure 4.3, DoD develops and sustains a persistent M&S and data environment for a particular military domain. As shown in the figure, a persistent M&S and data environment supports all phases of the life cycle.
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From page 75... ...
Army Europe and Africa, "1st Cavalry Division: Multinational Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise," photo, February 11, 2020, https:// www.europeafrica.army.mil/Newsroom/Photos/igphoto/2002251824/.
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From page 76... ...
The issue is often framed in terms of the question "Can 5 Robert Behler, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, "Study Sponsor Perspective," to Kickoff Meeting for Assessing the Suitability of Department of Defense Ranges, December 4, 2020. 6 Lieutenant General Eric Fick, Program Executive Officer, "Update on F-35 Program Accomplishments, Issues, and Risks," F-35 Joint Program Office Testimony to House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittees on Tactical Air and Land Forces and Readiness Joint Hearing, April 22-23, 2021, https://armedservices.house.gov/2021/4/subcommittees-on-tacticalair-and-land-forces-and-readiness-joint-hearing-update-on-f-35-program-accomplishmentsissues-and-risks.
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From page 77... ...
This is why Recommendation 3-1 for a joint program office also includes responsibility to sustain the M&S and data ecosystem necessary for integrated development and test of critical mission threads. Since M&S has traditionally been used to demonstrate that a preliminary design meets requirements, the associated funding has often been applied well past program inception.
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One particular aspect of these centralized M&S resources should be a collection of digital twins that represent adversary equipment or threats against which multiple development systems will be tested. M&S also plays an increasingly important role in meeting the challenges associated with cybersecurity, which drives rapidly evolving threat 8 Modern Technology Solutions, "Simulation and Analysis Facility (SIMAF)
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A Department of Defense joint program office should establish a shared, accessible, and secure modeling and simulation (M&S) and data ecosystem to drive development and testing across the life cycles of multiple supporting programs.
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In the January 2021 workshop, James Amato, the executive test director of the Army Test and Evaluation Command, observed that, as a result of the digital revolution, the military ranges are collecting more and more data from tests. "The amount of data that we push around and that we have to push between ranges, has grown exponentially," he told the committee.
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From page 81... ...
"We don't have the technology and solutions in place today to be able to do that at scale, at speed that will be required to link those."11 Similarly, another speaker at the workshop, Arun Seraphin, a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, identified the lack of an efficient data infrastructure as a major OT&E challenge. The ranges generate large volumes of test data, he said, but they do not manage those data well, and the main reason for that failure is that the ranges' data infrastructure is inadequate (NASEM, 2021, pp.
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From page 82... ...
. He con tinued on to observe that some military ranges hardly seem to have entered the digital age at all, and he spoke about a time he was at an Army testing facility where people "were complaining to us enormously because they had a difficult time keeping track of all the paper copies of the testing results that they needed to get from the range that they were supposed to inspect."14 Data Communication Issues One particular challenge related to the vast amounts of data that will be generated by the tests of the future is simply moving those data from one place to another among the relevant platforms, range assets, and participating test ranges.
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. Data Interoperability and Security Challenges to Sharing Data In addition to the basic challenge of moving huge amounts of data from place to place, as described above, military ranges face two other
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From page 84... ...
Even today, when the value of data interoperability is more widely recognized than in the past, the designers of individual systems will often make locally optimal decisions about data definitions and formats. The result is that the various data systems operating on military ranges have limited data interoperability.
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From page 85... ...
. To ensure the usability and value of the data collected on the nation's military ranges, the committee makes the following recommendations: BOX 4.1 Summary of Data Challenges for Test Ranges Listed below is a sample of data challenges voiced by members of the test community to the committee at its public workshop: • R anges need to work with customers to be ready for large exercises and ensure that all parties are adhering to data standards.
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From page 86... ...
Few ranges have sufficient bandwidth and clear protocols for the real-time transfer of test data generated at various classification levels. For data that are not prioritized for real-time transfer, the transfer can take weeks to reach appropriate analysts, potentially resulting in significant scheduling delays.
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From page 87... ...
. And in site visits to various ranges, committee members heard on multiple occasions that the ranges are completely unprepared to test systems running AI, including autonomous systems.
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In testing weapon systems on autonomous vehicles where the weapons may be under the control of AI, how can the safety of others on the ranges 17 Jane Pinelis, presentation to Workshop on Assessing the Suitability of Department of Defense Ranges, January 29, 2021.
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From page 89... ...
Finding 4-1: DoD test ranges are unprepared for the operational test ing and evaluation of the increasing integration of AI and autono mous systems in military systems. In an effort to develop a collaboration platform to support autonomy and AI projects and programs for DoD, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering established the Assured Development and Operation of Autonomous Systems (ADAS)
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2014. 2025 Air Test and Training Range Enhancement Plan.
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From page 91... ...
Accessed August 5, 2021. WSMR (White Sands Missile Range)
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