
On 21–25 March, approximately 170 survivability practitioners from Government and industry gathered at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, GA, for the 24th Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP) Model Users Meeting (JMUM). The purpose of the meeting—which was hosted by the Defense Systems Information Analysis Center (DSIAC) in partnership with the JASP Office and select model managers—was to promote ongoing modeling and simulation (M&S) support and collaboration throughout the aircraft survivability community.
For anyone not familiar with the JMUM, the annual meeting was started in 1998 with the specific focus on improving survivability-related models to support system design, acquisition, and operational decisions; helping those models be better applied and used; and helping to produce better model data for decision-makers. The gathering also provides a good opportunity for model users to meet and interact directly with model managers, developers, and fellow users to influence the future direction of aircraft survivability M&S.
This year’s JMUM included a plenary session of threat briefings, model overviews, model success stories, and future development plans; multiple concurrent breakout sessions for the air-to-air engagement, surface-to-air engagement, and vulnerability/lethality model groups; and Configuration Control Board meetings for respective JASP-funded models. During the breakout sessions, model managers detailed model support efforts (often driven by software change requests submitted by users) undertaken during the past year. Likewise, model developers discussed their recent development efforts and planned efforts for next year; and model users presented example use cases, discussed updates they have made to the models to fit their specific needs, and identified deficiencies they would like to have addressed.
Furthermore, the last 2 days of this year’s meeting featured a new cyber M&S breakout session, thus expanding the JMUM’s focus on the susceptibility/vulnerability of aircraft to traditional kinetic energy and directed energy threats to also include the effects of current and emerging cyber threats on aircraft systems and associated missions. For this new session, Army, Navy, and Air Force representatives gave briefings on their respective organizations’ toolsets and various approaches to evaluating cyber survivability at the system and mission levels.
While the JMUM is primarily focused on JASP-supported models, planners also strive to include participation from across the M&S community, especially in areas where JASP models are leveraged or used by other related tools or frameworks. For example, this year the Air Force Research Laboratory discussed the Advanced Framework for Simulation Integration and Modeling (AFSIM), a framework that JASP is working on to integrate select models with, and expose JASP models to, a much larger M&S community across the Services. Service representatives also gave presentations on the toolsets they are using to assess aircraft cyber survivability and leverage mode based systems engineering.
JMUM planners are always seeking feedback from JASP and other related model users, especially regarding topics they would like to see presented at next year’s JMUM. For more information or to submit abstracts, input, and/or suggestions, please contact Mr. Alfred Yee at alfred.yee@dsiac.org.
Note that JMUM attendance is limited to U.S. military and DoD civilian personnel and DoD contractors possessing a SECRET-level (or higher) clearance and valid need-to-know.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. James Davis currently leads engagement analysis efforts for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and served for 3 years as a JASPO Deputy Program Manager and the M&S Lead. He has been involved in aircraft combat survivability for almost 20 years, working areas such as live fire test and evaluation, susceptibility reduction and countermeasure effectiveness evaluation, aircraft survivability technology development and fielding, and aircraft combat effectiveness and survivability M&S. Mr. Davis holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton and a master’s degree in engineering design from Wright-State University.