COTS Procurement for Military C³I Systems

Abstract

Abstract : Exploiting Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) products in defence applications is becoming increasingly important, especially in the fast-moving field of Information Technology (IT). This thesis explores ways in which the procurement of COTS-based Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (CI) systems may be improved; particularly, with respect to the use of more formal scientific techniques during the development and procurement processes. Initially, an exploratory research survey was conducted, which identified that the area was not academically well-defined, and would benefit from some intellectual structuring. Consequently, a more focused survey, addressing specific investigation areas, was conducted, which revealed a number of potential research directions. One applicable finding concerned the Combined Operational Effectiveness and Investment Appraisal (COEIA), which the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MOD) has introduced to support procurement decisions. Predicting operational effectiveness is typically achieved by assigning scores to various system functions, and combining these in a weighted sum to achieve an overall figure of merit. This 'black-box' approach is considered to have fundamental limitations, especially for socio-technical C'I systems. Accordingly, this thesis proposes an alternative COEIA approach, based upon the notion of creating a 'white-box' model of a C'I system, which explicitly represents the influences of technology, people and process. By simulating the interaction of competing CI system models, in a dynamic conflict scenario, overall system effectiveness can be measured in an open, verifiable and system-scientific approach, which would be useful to assess the impact of COTS selection on overall C'I system effectiveness. This represents the central hypothesis of the thesis, whose attendant experimental programme has resulted in the creation of a novel white-box model for C'I systems, using a synergistic combination of two existing techniques, and the development of a dynamic conflict simulation using the STELLAT™ tool. Experimental use of this simulation, for COTS-based effectiveness studies, is considered to have established 'proof of principle' for the approach, which is perceived to have applications beyond its immediate purpose, such as offering insights to systems engineering and to the phenomenon of emergence.