As the new millennium approaches, a question begs to be answered; how can the modeling and simulation technologies developed over the past fifteen years be applied to provide synthetic solutions to reduce the cost of systems acquisition? In the past year the call for simulation based acquisition has continued to expand. The idea of using simulations to support acquisition is not new, novel, or revolutionary. Supporting acquisition with simulation is sensible but also low risk and therefore provides potentially only a minimal reduction in acquisition costs. The opportunity before the community today is to morph the paradigm of the simulation role from one of supporting to one of conducting acquisition. Conducting acquisitions using simulation brings forth a whole new range of issues. It also transforms a low risk approach to a higher risk with the potential for significant cost reduction. Development of thought leadership by the simulation and acquisition communities to address this opportunity is required as DoD moves into the 21^st Century. The problem is very board and the issues are many. This paper focuses on the challenges of conducting test and evaluation through simulation for systems acquisition. The keystone issue here is to define a process which could evolve a simulation architecture that will be accepted as a tool for conducting portions of test and evaluation beyond merely providing a supporting role. The results of our efforts will be valuable to Program Managers (PM) during the Milestone II to III phase of their system's acquisition cycle. Our approach is based upon working through such a process of defining architecture and simulation specifications to support the operational test and evaluation program for PM Grizzly. As a result of our effort to develop this architecture a need arose to also define a structured methodology that would help us to arrive at a useable result. Through the process put forth in this paper we are confident we have developed a useful methodology that will permit PM Grizzly to conduct segments of the Grizzly operational test and evaluation in simulation. This structured methodology is generic enough that it is capable of supporting other acquisition projects as well.