A Demonstration to Assess Effectiveness, Suitability, and Survivability With the Missions and Means Framework

Abstract : We describe a proof-of-principle exercise in which we demonstrated the use of a methodology called the Missions and Means Framework (MMF) to explore the behavior of a force in a notional operational context. The MMF is a methodology to specify military missions and evaluate alternative services and products in doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leader development, personnel, and facilities for their utility to those missions. The objective of the exercise was to explore the MMF s utility for (1) modeling a company s ability to continue its mission as a networked system of systems while suffering loss of capability in selected systems and (2) tracing the impact on critical mission tasks of degradation in system functions. The simulation showed how mission accomplishment could be modeled as a function of changes in the state of low-level components. The demonstration verified that the MMF is a useful framework to evaluate the effectiveness, suitability, and survivability of complex warfighting systems in the context of their contribution to the operational mission. We also present lessons learned on how the methods can be applied to the Army Test and Evaluation Command s strategy of mission-based test and evaluation.