Acquisition Challenges of Autonomous Systems

The Department of Defense has stated publicly that future defense capabilities will depend strongly on autonomous systems;systems that make sophisticated judgments about the world and choose appropriate courses of action, and perhaps even adapt and learn over time. Developing and deploying such systems poses more than just a technical challenge in robotics and artificial intelligence;it also poses many challenges to the acquisition process and workforce. From cost estimation to sustainment planning, every aspect of acquisition will be affected. Test and evaluation, in particular, may require not only novel methodologies and resources, but organizational and process changes as well.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Progra

When Is It Feasible to Use the Software Acquisition Pathway?…and when should you start?

Symposium PresentationApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

When is it Feasible (or Desirable) to use the Software Acquisition Pathway?

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumDoD Instruction 5000.87 establishes a Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP) “for the efficient and effective acquisition, development, integration, and timely delivery of secure software” (Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, 2020, p. 1). Under SWP, programs are required to deliver a Minimum Viable Capability Release (MVCR) deployed to an operational environment within 1 year of initial funding. This MVCR must be secure and suitable for operational deployment and must enhance warfighting capability. This paper discusses the challenge of determining for a software development effort whether the minimum capabilities that meet these criteria and enable ongoing agile development can plausibly be developed, tested, and operationally deployed in less than a year. We use a standard software cost and schedule model to derive bounds on the size of software that can be developed and ready to field in 12 months. The study concludes that many DoD software acquisitions will require too much development effort for the MVCR to comply with the SWP deadline if SWP is used from program initiation. We propose some criteria the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment might use to determine whether the SWP is appropriate for a particular new or existing program or software development project. We also consider development strategies that might improve the chances of success in using the SWP, including how non-SWP programs and projects should be architected if the intent is to later transition to SWP.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

When Does It Make Sense to Acquire a Single Weapon System Design That Can Be Used in Both Manned and Unmanned Operational Modes

There is a strong push to change from manned toward both unmanned and optionally manned systems within the Department of Defense. There are significant open questions about how the manned versus unmanned versus optionally manned options influence costs, adaptability, operational utility, and suitability for missions. The Institute for Defense Analyses developed an approach to address these questions that links underlying physical attributes and engineering relationships to mission attributes and costs. We discuss this approach, where it fits into the acquisition process, and how it can be used to quantitatively inform the unmanned versus optionally manned discussions at both a system level and fleet level.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Progra

Riparian Meadow Response to Modern Conservation Grazing Management.

Riparian meadows occupy a small proportion of the public lands in the western United States but they provide numerous ecosystem services, including the production of high-quality forage for livestock grazing. Modern conservation management strategies (e.g., reductions in livestock stocking rates and adoption of new riparian grazing standards) have been implemented to better balance riparian conservation and livestock production objectives on publicly managed lands. We examined potential relationships between long-term changes in plant community, livestock grazing pressure and environmental conditions at two spatial scales in meadows grazed under conservation management strategies. Changes in plant community were not associated with either livestock stocking rate or precipitation at the grazing allotment (i.e., administrative) scale. Alternatively, both grazing pressure and precipitation had significant, albeit modest, associations with changes in plant community at the meadow (i.e., ecological site) scale. These results suggest that reductions in stocking rate have improved the balance between riparian conservation and livestock production goals. However, associations between elevation, site wetness, precipitation, and changes in plant community suggest that changing climate conditions (e.g., reduced snowpack and changes in timing of snowmelt) could trigger shifts in plant communities, potentially impacting both conservation and agricultural services (e.g., livestock and forage production). Therefore, adaptive, site-specific management strategies are required to meet grazing pressure limits and safeguard ecosystem services within individual meadows, especially under more variable climate conditions

Complexity in an Unexpected Place: Quantities in Selected Acquisition Reports

We have looked at the definition of units in numerous acquisition programs and discovered that the units reported are almost never simple; in some programs, no two units are the same, and almost invariably the units produced at the end of a long production run are substantially different from the early ones. We have identified three reasons why the units may differ. The first reason is changes over time, generally as system capabilities are improved. The second is due to mixed types, where units that are inherently dissimilar;such as CH-47F and MH-47G helicopters;are produced by the same program and each is called one unit. The final reason why units can differ is reporting accidents. We give examples of all three and discuss possible methods of improving the reporting requirement.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Progra

Conceptualizing Group Dynamics From Our Clients\u27 Perspective: Development of the Conceptualization of Group Dynamics Inventory

There is a clear call in group counseling practice and training for evidence-based practice (ACA, 2005; ASGW, 2008; CACREP, 2009). At the same time, group counselors also are asked to keep clients\u27 experience at the center of their work (ASGW, 2012). This article outlines the authors\u27 effort to develop and study an instrument designed to measure group counselors\u27 conceptualization skill using group members\u27 subjective perceptions as a foundation. Descriptions of the instrument\u27s internal reliability, construct validity, and generalizability will be presented, as well as suggestions for conducting research on this instrument in future studies

Sound and feeling: Musical training moderates the association between adult ADHD and emotion regulation

This study investigated whether adults with ADHD ("Cases") regulate emotions differently than their non-ADHD peers ("Controls"), and whether this effect is moderated by the number of years of musical training. We predicted that Cases would have poorer emotion regulation than Controls and the relation between ADHD and poor emotion regulation would be weakened with increased years of musical training. 1537 participants aged 18-65 (M=32, SD=12 years) were recruited from the Music Universe project (www.musicaluniverse.org; Greenberg, & Rentfrow, 2017). 57% were female and 8% had a lifetime ADHD diagnosis. Emotion regulation was measured with the Mentalized Affectivity Scale (Greenberg et al., 2017), which assesses the ability to: identify, control and modulate, and express emotions inwardly or outwardly. More years of musical training was significantly associated with a better ability to identify emotions, irrespective of clinical status. Cases were significantly better at identifying emotions compared to Controls, but the groups did not differ in how they processed emotions. Adults with ADHD showed higher outward emotional expression, but only when number of years of music training was low/moderate. Musical training shows promise for improving how adults with ADHD express emotions, perhaps underpinned by stronger top-down mechanisms at work in emotional self- control

Electrochemical Benzylic C(sp3)−H Acyloxylation

[Image: see text] The development of sustainable C(sp(3))–H functionalization methods is of great interest to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Anodic oxidation is an efficient means of producing benzylic cations that can undergo subsequent in situ nucleophilic attack to afford functionalized benzylic products. Herein, we demonstrate the suitability of carboxylic acids as nucleophiles to yield benzylic esters. This method employs a series of secondary benzylic substrates and functionalized carboxylic acids and is demonstrated on a gram scale in flow