System Studies & Simulation Inc.
S³ was founded in Huntsville, AL, in 1991 to support the US Army’s acquisition support processes for missiles and related systems. Today, S³ is a seasoned member of a strong contract community that supports the DoD 5000 Life Cycle Management System. S³ is involved in every phase of this system and its processes that enable the program manager to install management and oversight “of all activities associated with the acquisition, development, production, fielding, sustaining, and disposal of a DoD system.”
S3 has more than 25 years of programmatic, technical, and logistics prime contractor experience with multiple Program Executive Offices (PEOs) and their associated weapon systems. During this time, S³ has supported many successful Army and OSD Milestone Decision Reviews. Our solutions include strategic planning for business process improvements and analysis and recommendations for all program activities including technology maturity and insertion point assessments, identification of software spiral development opportunities, and life-cycle competition strategies. S³ also reviews and analyzes prime contractor and vendor plans to ensure their current and long-range plans are consistent with PMO strategies, plans, and requirements. Examples of how S³ provides value-added solutions to this process are presented below.
S³ applies its “Enterprise-Wide Solution” model to the acquisition process by ensuring our knowledge and understanding of the latest acquisition program regulatory requirements, OSD and Service policy guidance and direction, and SME knowledge of appropriate weapons and systems. We use our knowledge, analytical capability, and experience with selected systems to support PEOs, Project/Program Managers (PMs), and TRADOC Capability Managers (TCMs). We support the Joint Capabilities and Development System (JCIDS) process, and have participated in studies that document the material requirements. S³ conducts extensive research, develops plans, performs trade studies, and provides reports that support decision-making throughout the life cycle of Acquisition Systems.
Support includes conducting training, collecting data, developing and validating requirements, and documenting Programs of Record across all Acquisition Category (ACAT) levels. S³ promotes and enables Enterprise-wide awareness of competing positions, resources constraints, emerging requirements, and future developments that may compete with current programs. S³ applies its in-depth knowledge of the Program Planning Budget Execution Systems (PPBES), the Program Objective Memorandum (POM), and all elements of the DoD 5000 series document processes to strengthen support to the PEO advocated position.
S³ provides review and update of Army and Joint concepts, system requirements documentation, Capabilities Bases Assessments (CBAs), Capabilities Needs Analyses (CNAs), Formation-based Assessments (FbA), Army Functional Concepts (AFC), Operational and Organization (O&O) Plans for Brigades, and CONOPS. We provide in-depth analysis of missions, capability gaps, technology requirements, and DOTMLPF-P assessments. S³ integrates this experience into the cyclical revision of the Army Concept Framework (ACF) and provides Subject Matter Expert (SME) support to experiments, Staff Exercises (STAFFEX), Unified Quest Events, and Seminar war games. Our past and current support to Army and Joint requirements demonstrates S³ ’s understanding of ACF; the Army Capstone Concept (ACC); Army Operating Concept (AOC); the Army’s seven Warfighting Functions; and all 20 Warfighting Challenges.
We prepare Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), identify Science and Technology (S&T) support requirements, provide simulation and experimentation support, develop JCIDS documents, perform technical assessments, and support Army and Joint capabilities development organizations. S³ participates in technology demonstrations that serve as the test bed for proof of concept exercises; writes, reviews, and provides input to all documents associated with the JCIDS process; and supports the development of future CONOPS.
Using approved methodology, S³ designs, plans, executes, and analyzes Army and Joint experiments and assesses concepts, emerging technologies, architectures, and doctrine in support of the Army Experimentation Plan. The volatility of the experimentation environment, fueled by emerging capability gaps, conceptual and doctrinal changes, and new technologies, requires near continuous adjustment of priorities, scope and schedules. With extensive battle lab experience, S³ supports the continuing maturation and refinement of operational concepts and organizational designs for Army Brigades through Corps.
S³ provides analytical rigor and validation through Modeling and Simulation (M&S) to support system acquisition requirements and to identify performance parameters for Joint and Coalition interoperability. We plan and execute numerous experiment venues that contribute to capability gap analyses and identification of spiral requirements.
In addition to the major areas described above where S³ supports Army and Joint customers in identifying requirements, assessing possible solutions, and projecting capability, we also provide our customers products and services for the following:
