A Systems Engineering Process for Systems of Systems

Abstract This paper discusses a systems engineering process to develop complex military systems of systems. The steps—from the mission need through requirements definition, functional identification and decomposition, subsystem development, integration, test, and deployment—are described. The difficulties associated with incorporating legacy equipment and providing seamless and synergistic integration of new elements are discussed. The integration and test of these systems of systems also requires new dimensions and measurement systems to assess performance. Finally, the need for new doctrine, rules, and procedures that link these systems of systems to expert control systems when deployed is discussed.