Simulation-Based Acquisition Only a 'Slogan,' Says Survey.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

A Pentagon-funded survey of major defense programs revealed what many had suspected all along: that simulation-based acquisition is more of a myth than a reality.

Simulation-based acquisition is a buzzword that illustrates the notion that weapon systems can be designed and developed entirely as digital models and that those models are accepted as valid prototypes.

The sponsor of the survey was James F. O'Bryon, deputy director of operational test and evaluation at the office of the secretary of defense. The study covered 22 major defense acquisition programs. Each program office was asked whether it used simulation-based acquisition methods and, if so, to explain how it was implemented. The only program that did not provide data was the Joint Strike Fighter, because it's still in a competition, so any information on JSF models was considered proprietary. Ironically, the JSF program is among those that most heavily have used modeling and simulation in the design and development phases.

Among the questions asked were how digital models are organized, who pays for the models and whether the models are validated and accredited.

"To ensure candor from the program managers, we agreed to not release information on specific programs, but rather service-wide," said O'Bryon in an interview.

The survey, he said, "paints a rather bleak picture."

Even though the Defense Department spends millions of dollars each year developing digital models for various applications, simulation-based acquisition is not pursued in any organized manner, O'Bryon said. "We really don't have SBA. A lot of money is spent on models and simulation. But it's very disjointed. In some cases, it's spent multiple times on similar models," he said. "Most acquisition programs do not have modeling and simulation plans."

Industry executives either are being disingenuous or are fooling themselves when they say that SBA is "here and now," said O'Bryon.

During an August conference on testing and training in Orlando, Fla., the president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Stan Arthur, said that simulation-based acquisition "has arrived."

That is false, said O'Bryon. "SBA is here in name. It's only a slogan ... A bumper sticker. ... It does not exist." Many people in the industry, he added, "want to declare success. It makes the industry people look good, because they don't spend money testing" the systems.

At the Defense Department, he said, "We are using simulation. But we don't have a simulation-based acquisition system, using simulation systematically. If that were the case, O'Bryon said, huge financial savings could be made.

"We are spending billions of dollars on models and it's not very well organized.

... On the training side, they are more organized than on the acquisition side." Models are used, for example, to replicate the terrain where a weapon system will operate, the atmospheric conditions, the radar signature, among others.

According to the survey, more than 80 percent of the...