Case Study

Securing the Nation with Systems Engineering

Washington, D.C.

As threats to National Security become more sophisticated, so must the nation’s ability to defend against their emergence.

As a result of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in October 2000, the U.S. Navy needed to reevaluate the threat to naval assets and develop mitigations.

As part of the reevaluation, SPA worked with the Navy, from conceptual design to execution and sustainment, to close a security gap in transit escort. We helped develop a naval security package that comprises a variety of SPA’s specialized services:

Wargaming and modeling to evaluate conceptual security system designs
Cost effectiveness analysis and decision support
Program strategy and execution support
Systems engineering and safety analysis support, including requirements derivation and environmental assessment
Government testing and acceptance support
System lifecycle strategy and operations support
Operational metrics collection, analysis, and recommendations for operational improvements
Safety assessments to improve safe operations
Analyses of system operations and the evolving threat to evaluate system effectiveness

SPA’s analytic, programmatic, engineering, operational, safety, and policy support helped the Navy achieve key program milestones. The security package we helped develop continues to be an essential feature of emergent threat mitigation.

Naval Security Highlights

Conceptualized and Evaluated Security System

SPA developed and facilitated a series of wargames and modeling and simulation exercises to identify security and operational requirements for the future naval security package. We also conceptualized and evaluated security system options to mitigate emergent threats to naval assets.

Reduced program risks and delivery schedule by 3 years

SPA identified suitable in-production systems that reduced program risks. Through lethality testing of weapons systems, modeling and simulation, and system safety engineering, we were able to optimize designed system of systems’ performance.

Avoided over $300M in cost

SPA recommended adapting existing platforms, weapon systems, and system components to conform to the newly established system requirements. The result was an effective solution that provided more capability and reduced the cost to the Navy by over $300M when compared to the baseline option.

Support system lifecycle continuous improvement

SPA developed metrics and data collection processes to monitor and recommend improvements to operational availability and system effectiveness against the threat. We conducted modeling and simulation, on-water exercises, scenario-based crew training, and continuous evaluation of the threat to improve system performance.