Testing in a Joint Environment Roadmap - U.S. Army Operational ...

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Testing in a Joint Environment Roadmap
2.0 TESTING IN A JOINT ENVIRONMENT ROADMAP
2.1 JOINT CAPABILITIES IDENTIFICATION AND ACQUISITION
The long-term objective of Force Transformation is to match current capabilities more
closely to the warfighting needs of the Combatant Commanders (CoComs) and transform the
requirements definition and acquisition business practices to capabilities-based processes that
ensure future capabilities are designed, developed, tested, and fielded to fully support joint
operating, functional, and integrating concepts. The CoComs are the ultimate customers of
capabilities-based acquisition and testing. Force Transformation requires both modernization of
existing legacy military capabilities to more closely meet joint needs, and filling capability gaps
using capabilities-based acquisition that is fully focused on providing the needed joint mission
capability. As noted in the Joint Operations Concepts document: “The Joint Force must move
beyond deconfliction to fully integrated elements with all functions and capabilities focused
toward a unified purpose. This means that the capabilities provided by the Services, combatant
commands and combat support agencies are ‘born joint’ and fully integrated. Thus the Joint
Force Commander will have a set of inherently interoperable and synergistic joint capabilities to
employ. Legacy equipment and systems will be ‘made joint’ to the extent possible until such
time as replacement by ‘born joint’ equipment is feasible.”
Full implementation of the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS)
defined in CJCS Instruction (CJCSI) 3170.01D as the means to develop and communicate
desired system capabilities to the acquisition and T&E communities will be the most significant
change that will affect how T&E will be conducted in the future. For illustration purposes in this
roadmap, Figure 1 shows JCIDS decisions that define a materiel solution as the initiation of the
capabilities-based acquisition process. The procedures established in the JCIDS support the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) and the Joint Requirements Oversight Council
(JROC) in identifying, assessing, and prioritizing joint military capability needs. JCIDS is the
source of the Initial Capabilities Document (ICD), CDD, and CPD, replacing the older Mission
Needs Statement (MNS) and Operational Requirements Document (ORD). Additionally, the
JCIDS is a key element in the Chairman’s efforts to realize the initiatives directed in the
Secretary’s Transformation Planning Guidance (TPG). JCIDS will move materiel developers
and testers away from the Service-centric system requirements of the past towards the necessary
joint-centric capability development for future systems. JCIDS will drive both the requirement
for jointness in acquisition systems, and the test and acquisition community’s need for a
matching systems engineering and test capability that will support JCIDS-based system and
system-of-systems developments and T&E.
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