Editor's Perspective

I’d like to welcome aboard MSMF’s Huntsville-based correspondent Jennifer Devlin. Her addition to the team allows MSMF to extend its editorial presence into one of the space and missile community’s centers of excellence. Jennifer’s familiarity with the Huntsville community’s members and issues are the underpinnings of her article “Recognizing the Best” and will allow her to contribute to the Huntsville Update department in future issues.

This issue of MSMF also brings two technology enablers, testing and modeling and simulation, to the forefront.

Our insert highlights the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center-led team’s vital work that puts new military space and missile systems through their paces in an operationally realistic battlespace environment. AFOTEC’s efforts support the expanding commitment by Missile Defense Agency and its DoD partners to increase the rigor and jointness of Ballistic Missile Defense program element testing.

DoD’s efforts to increase the rigor of the testing environment for new space and missile systems complement another trend—the use of modeling and simulation throughout a system’s life cycle. Borrowing a page from programs in other DoD communities, the M&S domain also allows space and missile system operators to train as they will operate and fight. Erin Flynn Jay’s article, inside the AFOTEC insert, provides an update of our community’s use of the domain.

The benefits of M&S and a robust test program should not be lost on the public and Capitol Hill. Our community can test materials, propulsion systems and other systems and platform components during R&D and other front-end activities, as well as during discussions about modernization. These strategies are a great investment, allowing the department to wisely spend its appropriated resources. The space and missile community’s plan to achieve readiness and gain additional efficiencies through testing and M&S are just what the evolving economic environment and the Obama administration demand.

Marty Kauchak, Editor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it