Modeling and simulation (M&S) has taken its place as a key enabler in all phases of today's military systems development and fielding, from research and development through training and operations planning. The quality and value of M&S activities are dependent not only on the quality of M&S software, but also on the information that drives models and simulations. When M&S is employed in a large-scale enterprise, data dependencies among models and simulations emerge. These range from sharing data among models and simulations to using model and simulation outputs to drive other models and simulations.

In the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program, M&S is a key enabler to all activities, from design through training. Hundreds of models, simulations, and modeling environments (such as computer-aided design systems) enable a web of interrelated activities and require a corresponding information flow. The JSF pioneered an information management approach utilizing metadata to facilitate the understanding and appropriate use of data. Traditional metadata management approaches focus on describing the content and format of individual information resources. The unique aspect of the JSF information management approach is the addition of metadata that captures the lineage of data, allowing information traceability from external sources and through the chain of M&S activities.

This information management approach has been incorporated in the Resource Access System (RAS), which is part of the overall JSF product data management system. RAS is used to locate, access, and register data about the JSF weapons system and other systems with which it interacts. RAS uses metadata for information location and retrieval and for validation of data integrity conditions. We defined an Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based data interchange format that is used to package information resource metadata along with the data content and share these across activities.