System Engineering

Systems Engineering

SPARTA's technical contributions to the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) in support of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) include providing an independent assessment and analysis of key issues on such subjects as boost-phase intercept, midcourse defenses, countermeasures, discrimination architecture, advanced technologies, and airborne sensors. In addition to these studies, SPARTA was a major participant in efforts aimed at shaping the BMDS Spiral Development and Acquisition Program for future decades, including the Technical Objectives and Goals and System Capability Specification. We were the lead contractor for the BMD System Architecture Study, evaluating missile defense architecture alternatives and inventory requirements. We are currently an integral member of the Missile Defense National Team - a cooperative effort between Industry Primes, FFRDCs, SETA Contractors and Government - aimed at meeting the 2004 Fielding Decision for the BMDS.

Our work with MDA includes the hands-on day-to-day direct support we provided throughout the second full year of our BMDS Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) contract, for which we led a team of 13 subcontractors. SPARTA people, systems, and capabilities are fully integrated with MDA's capabilities for modeling and simulation management, interface between the operational and acquisition communities, and program planning and budgeting. Budgeting support includes cost analysis of the impact of decisions as small as changing a single component or as weighty as deploying a missile defense system. Our Systems Engineering processes assure that rigor is applied to all decisions through thorough analaysis of impacts and assessment of alternatives - including performance, cost and schedule.

The expertise SPARTA has developed in carrying out these tasks benefits other customers outside the Missile Defense area. We are now providing systems analysis support to the C4ISR Decision Support Center, a critical analysis center for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, and Communications.

SPARTA's analysts and engineers have contributed to the development of the US BMD program since our company's inception in 1979. We have also participated in every major missile defense architecture study sponsored by MDA and its predecessors, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO). As the nation moves toward deployment of an operational Ballistic Missile Defense System, much of the way ahead has been explored by SPARTA's analyses and studies. We have led the development of an architecture strategy for Ballistic Missile Defense that integrates proposed technical and operational architectures with supporting technology and acquisition programs. We developed mission requirements and defined and evaluated the performance of proposed BMD systems. In the process, we helped define the likely threats against which this system must defend itself. SPARTA's capabilities in communications analysis and design have also led to a strong role in many facets of preparing and planning BMDS command and control systems, including communication system design. We have assessed potentially applicable BMD technologies for the various program elements, and we are developing the concept of operations for the BMDS Command and Control, Battle management and Communications element. We examined what performance measures -- with attendant costs in schedule and resources -- each element of our future BMD system will have to achieve to function effectively.

As the BMDS moves toward deployment, we anticipate more work with the Test and Evaluation Community. This work includes test planning, performance and operational requirements development, test support, data analysis, and detailed assessment of test results. SPARTA is responsible for an annual, independent BMDA Capability Assessment. In addition, SPARTA supports the Joint National Integration Center (JNIC) in defining the Test Infrastructure, and Human-in-the-Loop Wargames to develop and wring out detailed Command and Control issues.

For more information contact Randy Morgan at 703-558-0036

Space Systems Engineering

SPARTA's Systems Engineering for space has contributed expertise to the definition and development of every major infrared surveillance and tracking satellite program since 1984. SPARTA products have provided the engineering basis for the concept of operation--and the flow-down of operational requirements to subsystem and component designs--for the Air Forces Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS). Our engineers also support all facets of software systems engineering and testing for the system. Through the Engineering, Analysis, Design and Development II (EADDII) contract, Sparta leads a team of over twenty companies positioned to support the Transformation Directorate and numerous Space programs at the Air Force Space and Missile Center. These include the GPS program, the Military Satellite Communications programs including Transformational Comm, the Space Based Surveillance System, and Space Based Radar. We are currently providing support to the Systems Acquisition office (SMC/AX) on the Systems Engineering Re-vitalization program at SMC leading the way for improved Space Systems Acquisition and Program Management into the 21st century. We provided engineering and integration for the XSS-10, an Air Force Research Laboratory micro-satellite, resulting is its successful launch in 2003. For Army Space Command, SPARTA has helped refine the requirements of MDA from the operators' perspective. We have used the combination of our space and modeling and simulation capabilities to plan and evaluate the performance of space assets in simulations. In particular the Systems Effectiveness and Analysis (SEAS) tool is the tool of choice for determining the contributions made by Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance supplied by space assets to the war-fighter. After US Strategic Command was merged in the Fall of 2002 with US Space Command to form USSTRATCOM, Sparta re-focused its resources to supporting the new command at Offutt AFB in the areas of space operations, information operations, computer network operations, and strategic defense and attack missions.

For more information contact Alan Johnson at 719-570-6998

C4 Systems Engineering

SPARTA's C4 systems engineering efforts focus on information and communications systems. We provide translation capability, one-of-a-kind instrumentation, reverse engineering, testing, and systems analysis of C4 equipment. To accomplish this, we develop in-house hardware and software that has led to specialized hardware products. A prime example is a device that enables users to transmit the contents of a personal computer (PC) hard drive up to 10 kilometers in two seconds.

For more information contact Doug Price at 703-448-0210

Secure Systems Engineering

SPARTA's systems engineering for space has contributed expertise to the definition and development of every major infrared surveillance and tracking satellite program since 1984. SPARTA products have provided the engineering basis for the concept of operation--and the flowdown of operational requirements to subsystem and component designs--for the Air Force's Space and Missile Tracking System. Our engineers also support all facets of software systems engineering and testing for the system. Through the Extended Air Defense contract, we provide assessments of space system programs at the Air Force Space and Missile Center. We are also supplying engineering and integration for the XSS-10, an Air Force Research Laboratory micro-satellite. For Army Space Command, SPARTA has helped refine the requirements of NMD from the operators' perspective. We have used the combination of our space and modeling and simulation capabilities to plan and evaluate the performance of space assets in simulations.

Civil space is a growth area, and SPARTA's participation in IRIDIUM®, the commercial global telecommunications program, is helping to make this growth possible. Focused on the system control segment and ground-station logistics, SPARTA contributions included requirement analysis, system analysis and modeling, resource management, network engineering and modeling, and software engineering and fault-management design. This is a prime example of how SPARTA's years of experience in simulating entire architectures of interlinked systems have been successfully applied to the civil sector.

For more information contact Alan Johnson at 719-570-6998