The 26th Annual National Test & Evaluation Conference is sponsored by the NDIA Test & Evaluation Division and supported by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (AT&L) and the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E). Co-sponsors include the C4ISR and Systems Engineering Divisions of NDIA.

Changing national defense priorities and rapidly developing technologies are fueling the trend toward interconnections between a broad array of defense networks. These networks involve not only real-time combat command and control but also logistics, intelligence, electronic data bases and a host of other nodes. The days of testing and evaluating individual weapon systems in a stand-alone mode without concurrently assessing them as integral parts of a much larger network of players are over.

This national conference will focus on this reality and address how test and evaluation can assure that those systems destined to function in such a net-centric highly interconnected combat environment will function as required. Recent policy initiatives to systematically apply Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology to Test and Evaluation activities of the DoD and DHS will also be presented and discussed.

Also, in light of the recommendations of recent defense acquisition panels and study groups regarding how to improve the T&E – defense acquisition process, the conference will address the implications of these recommendations as well as the recent actions by the Congress to address the growing need to strengthen early developmental testing.

Given the pace of changing tactics by our adversaries and the vital requirement to support our ongoing combat efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere, this conference will also address how the greater DoD and DHS communities can improve and accelerate their responsiveness to the warfighter and first responder, as well as how lessons learned from the combat zone can best be implemented in the process of T&E.

Clearly, none of these issues can be addressed effectively without placing them in the context of the nation’s growing fiscal problems, affordability concerns and escalating costs for repairing and maintaining not only the currently-fielded systems but also assuring that our national T&E infrastructure is maintained in support of these efforts.