Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure

Webcast

Public Briefing for the Report: Necessary DoD Range Capabilities to Ensure Operational Superiority of U.S. Defense Systems

October 13, 2021

11:00 AM - 11:00 AM (EDT)

Past

Materials

About

Department of Defense test ranges are essential for assessing the effectiveness of military systems in realistic operating conditions across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. However, aging range infrastructure and limited capacity present challenges for testing advanced technologies and deploying reliable weapon systems to the field in a timely manner.

A new National Academies' report, Necessary DoD Range Capabilities to Ensure Operational Superiority of U.S. Defense Systems: Testing for the Future Fight, evaluates the physical and technical suitability of DoD test ranges and infrastructure. The report, commissioned by the DoD Director for Operational Test and Evaluation, includes a comprehensive set of findings and recommendations to address range deficiencies for testing technologies anticipated to arrive between now and 2035.

We invite you to download the report and join us for a public briefing webinar on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 from 11am-12pm ET to learn more. During the webinar, members of the committee will discuss the report's key recommendations and take questions from the audience.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Contact us

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Virtual Site Visit #6)

April 13, 2021

12:00 PM - 5:00 PM (EDT)

Past

About

The Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) is an Air Force MRTFB. NTTR provides training, test, and developmental testing area and hosts test operations of the 98th Test Wing and other customers for OT&E test. The committee was able to engage in a full day virtual discussion with individuals from various NTTR elements including plans and programs, operations, financial management, physical security, range support, and program management. This visit was conducted virtually on 13 April 2021. Managing increasing capacity was noted as a major current challenge at NTTR. Additionally, personnel indicated the need to better anticipate future program requirements. A possible solution mentioned was connecting earlier with the DT community to learn about and coordinate test requirements. Another challenge is data transmission speed, with personnel noting that customers may have to wait 50-60 days to receive data results from their test event. Future OT&E challenges included a lack of understanding as to how to incorporate AI into test events, the lack of definitions for MDOs, and the need to purchase radar arrays that are not run on proprietary software. A final future OT&E issue mentioned was that the stove piping of programs, meaning the lack of coordination and integration across programs and missions, makes MDO testing difficult to perform.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Webcast

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Virtual Site Visit #5)

April 7, 2021

11:00 AM - 2:00 PM (EDT)

Past

About

The Point Mugu Sea Range is a Navy MRTFB selected by the committee because of their electronic warfare testing capabilities. This site visit was conducted virtually on 7 April 2021. Personnel from Point Mugu noted that current OT&E issues stem from costly test failures that result from losing or not having enough targets/kill removal systems on the range. These test failures can cost up to $5 million per target lost. The second challenge noted was the struggle to maintain cybersecurity in an ever-changing cyber environment. Future concerns for OT&E include advancements in hypersonic test, multi-level security, infrastructure modernization, keeping pace with advancements in directed energy, lack of understanding for authority on cross-domain testing, and range demand exceeding capacity. A final note by personnel was that many infrastructure upgrades are paid for by program customers. This means that the new infrastructure is locked to the customer that paid for them. Point Mugu therefore can have modern infrastructure but cannot utilize it for any other tests outside the program that paid for the infrastructure.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Virtual Site Visit #4)

April 6, 2021

8:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EDT)

Past

About

The Air Force Test Center (AFTC) is overseen by the Air Force Material Command (AFMC) and oversees a broad array of test facilities including the 96th test wing at Eglin AFB, the 412th test wing at Edwards AFB, and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson AFB. The 96th and 412th test wings are Air Force MRTFBs. These sites were selected to better understand the interaction between DT and OT and how connectivity is achieved between ranges that are not in geographical proximity to one another. This visit was conducted virtually on 6 April 2021. The top three current OT&E challenges outlined during the site visit included lack of space to conduct expanding kill chains from launch to target, technical challenges with test infrastructure, and the range capacity with associated scheduling issues. Looking ahead, the representatives viewed future OT&E challenges as: (1) lack of facilities to conduct kill chain testing. This includes both “on range” and “off range” test infrastructure. The “off range” infrastructure includes facilities for M&S, SIL, HITL, and LVC. (2) Cybersecurity testing. The current process is forcing testers to reinvent processes every 16 months. Problem stems from testers not knowing how code is written. (3) Integrating ranges so that larger tests can be conducted. Several representatives also mentioned the need for a national roadmap for emerging technology areas that includes funding, maintenance, modernization.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Virtual Site Visit #3)

March 24, 2021

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EDT)

Past

About

The National Cyber Range Complex (NCRC) was created as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) function and is now overseen by the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC). The committee was able to engage with NCRC Director AJ Pathmanathan in a virtual setting to discuss the connection between the cyber range and operational test. This visit was conducted virtually on 24 March 2021. NCRC identified four key current OT&E issues: (1) a lack of a trained cyber workforce; (2) a lack of requirements and funding for programs to use a cyber range; (3) compatibility issues are arising from the fact that next generation systems need to be integrated with older programs, such as Microsoft Windows 98; and (4) an increased need to work with agencies in the intelligence community to close the loop on integrating current threat intelligence into the virtual test environment.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Virtual Site Visit #2)

March 19, 2021

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EDT)

Past

About

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is a research, development, and acquisition agency within DoD whose mission is to develop and deploy a layered Missile Defense System to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies, and friends from missile attacks in all phases of flight. MDA was selected to better understand end-to-end testing across multiple ranges. This visit was conducted virtually on 19 March 2021. The top current OT&E challenges noted by MDA included high demand for services, a lack of trained personnel, the inability to share information across ranges, and aging infrastructure and telemetry assets. Looking ahead, the representatives viewed achieving automated flight safety system (AFSS) compliance by 2030 as a future OT&E challenges because AFSS requirements are not set by all programs utilizing MDA’s services.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Site Visit #1)

March 10, 2021

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM (EST)

Past

About

A small subset of the committee was able to travel to the Atlantic Test Range (ATR), a Navy MRTFB, and the Air Combat Environment Test & Evaluation Facility at Patuxent River. The committee sought to better understand integrated physical/virtual testing, as well as operations, financial management, range support, and program management. Of particular interest to the committee was the Joint Simulation Environment (JSE), which provides a high-fidelity modeling and simulation environment to conduct testing on fifth-plus generation aircraft and systems. This visit was conducted in person on 10 March 2021. The current OT&E challenges noted by ATR included (1) the need to have greater test coordination to ensure the most effective use of range time; (2) the lack of a centralized database and repository for M&S and threat references for OT&E; (3) multi-level security and classification raises issues for cross platform testing; and (4) the integration of M&S with OT&E. Projected challenges include the capabilities to test AI systems.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Workshop

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Meeting #2 and Workshop)

January 28 - 29, 2021

Past

Materials

Speaker Bios

About

The purpose of this workshop was to hear from a variety of speakers and panelists to identify key operational test and evaluation (OT&E) challenges facing current programs in each of the war-fighting domains. The workshop also hosted discussions on potential paradigm shifts that could improve the effectiveness and realism necessary to meet demands anticipated by 6th generation systems across multiple domains. The workshop specifically examined:

The aggregate physical suitability of DoD's ranges to include their testing capacity, the condition of their infrastructure, security measures, and encroachment challenges.
The technical suitability of ranges to include spectrum management, instrumentation, cyber and analytics tools, and their modeling and simulation capacity.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Meeting Closed

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Meeting #4)

April 1 - 2, 2021

Past

About

This was the fourth meeting of the Range Study committee. The committee meeting topics included:

A final review of the recommendations
Key edits to the report

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Institution Closed

The following committee members were present at the closed sessions of the event

Dana "Keoki" Jackson, Darryl Ahner, Karen Butler-Purry, Graham Candler, Gordon Fornell, Derrick Hinton, Robert Kewley, Laura McGill, Hans Miller, Heidi Perry, Gary Polansky, Karl Schneider and William Wilson

The following topics were discussed in the closed sessions:

At this meeting, the committee came to consensus on the report recommendations and provided key edits to the report before submitting it for review.

The following materials (written documents) were made available to the committee in the closed sessions:

N/A

Date of posting of Closed Session Summary:

September 28, 2021

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Meeting

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Meeting #3)

March 4 - 5, 2021

Past

Agenda

Download the Agenda

About

This was the 3rd virtual meeting of the Range Study committee. The committee meeting topics included:

Hearing testimony from additional experts and stakeholders
Subcommittee briefings on draft findings, conclusions, and recommendations
Discussions on the report structure
Identification of remaining topics not yet addressed

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Partially Closed

The following committee members were present at the closed sessions of the event

Dana "Keoki" Jackson, Darryl Ahner, Karen Butler-Purry, Graham Candler, Gordon Fornell, Derrick Hinton, Robert Kewley, Laura McGill, Hans Miller, Heidi Perry, Gary Polansky, Karl Schneider and William Wilson

The following topics were discussed in the closed sessions:

The committee meeting topics included: subcommittee briefings on draft findings, conclusions, and recommendations; discussions on the report structure; and identification of remaining topics not yet addressed.

The following materials (written documents) were made available to the committee in the closed sessions:

N/A

Date of posting of Closed Session Summary:

September 28, 2021

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Meeting

Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure (Meeting 1 Parts 1 and 2)

December 4 - 7, 2020

Past

Agenda

Download the Agenda

About

This was the first meeting of the Range Study committee. The committee meeting topics included:

An overview of the National Academies policies and procedures
Discussion of study statement of task
Potential sources of committee biases and conflicts of interests
Perspectives from the study sponsor
Development of the study work plan
Ideas for speakers at the public workshop

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Partially Closed

The following committee members were present at the closed sessions of the event

Dana "Keoki" Jackson, Darryl Ahner, Karen Butler-Purry, Graham Candler, Gordon Fornell, Derrick Hinton, Robert Kewley, Laura McGill, Hans Miller, Heidi Perry, Gary Polansky, Karl Schneider and William Wilson

The following topics were discussed in the closed sessions:

The closed meeting topics included: an overview of the National Academies policies and procedures; discussion of study statement of task; potential sources of committee biases and conflicts of interests; development of the study work plan; and ideas for speakers at the public workshop.

The following materials (written documents) were made available to the committee in the closed sessions:

N/A

Date of posting of Closed Session Summary:

January 07, 2025

Contact

Lida Beninson

(202) 334-2497
lbeninson@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

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Assessing the Physical and Technical Suitability of DoD Test and Evaluation Ranges and Infrastructure

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Public Briefing for the Report: Necessary DoD Range Capabilities to Ensure Operational Superiority of U.S. Defense Systems