Development of an Information Management System Architecture for Applying Modeling and Simulation to the DoD Acquisition Process.

The cost of system acquisition within the Department of Defense is significantly greater then other areas such as research and training. The acquisition of major DoD systems currently takes approximately 20 years from concept to service. The introduction and application of modern modeling and simulation, supported by all the advances in hardware and communication technologies, could conceivably make a dramatic breakthrough in the acquisition of systems and provide better systems, more rapidly fielded at substantially reduced cost. This Phase I SBIR project will address the advantages of developing a virtual procurement system, the feasibility of such a system, and a method for evaluating the utility of this system to the acquisition community. This virtual procurement system will be consistent with the process defined in DoD Instruction 5000.2, and will leverage recent advances in modeling and simulation, and communications infrastructure.