In order to keep up with the rate of technology advancement, solutions must be created that transcend hardware, middleware, protocols and data structures to allow for a sustainable implementation. Distributed Modeling & Simulation (M&S) includes applications executing their intended use for the collective goal of a System of Systems (SoS) M&S environment. Distributed M&S is fundamentally based on the exchange of information between functions that may not have been built to work together.

The Modeling Architecture for Technology, Research and EXperimentation (MATREX) program has been a synchronization point for M&S across the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) for many years. It has brought together models, simulations and tools from the RDECOM labs, centers and activities into a common architecture and environment. The program's focus has been on integrating these disparate applications into a harmonious solution for engineering model development and evaluation, technology tradeoffs, capability assessments, concept development, experimentation, testing and training. MATREX has developed tools that support this integration through multiple simulation middleware protocols. It has also developed tools that abstract away the integration details from the application developer. In particular, it allows the modeler to develop models while MATREX provides the tools to handle the M&S integration intricacies such as interest management, encoding/decoding, dead-reckoning, etc.

This paper will describe these Government-owned middleware agnostic tools along with a SoS Systems Engineering approach and infrastructure that can link M&S functional requirements to model-specific data requirements and code generated testing. MATREX tools and Systems Engineering process have been used across several programs, including the Training and Doctrine Command Battle Lab Collaborative Simulation Environment (BLCSE), Army Test & Evaluation Command Operational Test Command (OTC) Analytic Simulation and Integration Suite (OASIS) and Brigade Combat Team Modernization Simulation Environment (BSE), to name a few. This methodology could benefit many more M&S programs.

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Gary Smith