OAR Selected to Support Model Based Systems Engineering Initiative at AMRDEC SED

OAR has been selected by the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center’s Software Engineering Directorate (AMRDEC SED) to integrate Model-Based Acquisition, Development, and Sustainment into SED’s engineering and business enterprise. The objectives of this model-based initiative are to enhance support to the warfighter by shortening development times, improving system and software reliability, satisfying increased requirements for system safety (e.g. DO-178), security (e.g. EAL-6), and interoperability certification in the face of shrinking development budgets. This effort uses existing and emerging technologies, tools, and processes in the area of model-based engineering. This approach has potential for gains in cost, schedule, and developmental efficiencies that could be as high as one or two orders of magnitude over today’s increasingly expensive labor-intensive methods. As pilot programs unfold, the SED model-based initiative is developing and documenting the process and pathfinding how Models Based System Design (MBSD) can be incorporated during various stages of the system lifecycle with a goal of fundamentally changing how the government acquires, develops, and sustains systems. The SED technology initiative has gathered metrics and documented lessons learned in developing an official SED process leveraging industry’s best tools, processes, and methods. Best practices are being incorporated into SEDs MBSD documentation and training material. Institutionalization of these integrated model-based techniques is a daunting task for an organization as diverse as SED, just as it is at many other large DoD engineering organizations. However, the goal to this approach is to achieve an institutionalized, integrated model-based systems and software engineering development culture at SED that informs our already mature processes. The AMRDEC SED is one of the largest software and systems engineering capabilities in the nation with a campus of over 13 buildings, annual revenues of almost a billion dollars, and a staff of approximately 3500 scientists, engineers, and support members. The mission of the SED is to support and execute Army system acquisition, development, and sustainment across a wide range of the Army’s portfolio of systems and missions.