Joint Capabilities and System-of-Systems Solutions

Recognizing the need to succeed in a new multilateral, asymmetric threat environment, the Department of Defense has promoted a radical transformation in operations to promote agility and enhance responsiveness. The transformation process, as well as the resulting new order of operations, relies heavily on System-of-Systems (SOS) solutions to effectively bridge existing gaps in operations. To date, a pervasive and possibly detrimental assumption has dominated the program management arena: single-system level management tools and methods apply equally well to the acquisition of SOS solutions. This research questions the general assumption that single-system methods are effective in an SOS arena. Based on an empirical analysis by subject matter experts, this research begins to flesh out an analytical framework for understanding the resource requirements that will underpin SOS solutions for joint capabilities.