Defense science board recommendations: an examination of defense policy on the use of modeling and simulation

The Defense Science Board Task Force on Improving Test and Evaluation Effectiveness was requested to look at ways of improving the use of modeling and simulation as tools in the test and acquisition of US Defense Department systems. The author discusses the conclusions and recommendations of the Task Force. It is pointed out that it is extremely important to avoid operational test surprises, for reasons of both cost and credibility. This can be done by performing more operational testing during development, enabling developers to learn about problem areas while they still can be fixed rather than waiting until the system is fielded. It also helps to develop evaluation frameworks at the onset to specify how evaluation is to be performed; as the real program progresses, these must be upgraded so that they are consistent with the state of knowledge. Operational tests must be involved so that there are no unanticipated gaps or changes in viewpoint