The Role of Experimentation in Building Future Naval Forces

The Department of Defense is in the process of transforming the nation's armed forces to meet the military challenges of the 21st century. Currently, the opportunity exists to carry out experiments at individual and joint service levels to facilitate this transformation. Experimentation, which involves a spectrum of activities including analyses, war games, modeling and simulation, small focused experiments, and large field events among other things, provides the means to enhance naval and joint force development. To assist the Navy in this effort, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) asked the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct a study to examine the role of experimentation in building future naval forces to operate in the joint environment. The NRC formed the Committee for the Role of Experimentation in Building Future Naval Forces to perform the study.Table of ContentsFront MatterExecutive Summary1 Introduction2 Experimentation--What It Means3 Experimentation--Past, Present, and Future4 Emerging Roles in Experimentation--The Joint Connection5 Effectiveness of Experimentation for Future Naval Capabilities6 Recommendations for Improving the Overall Effectiveness of NavalExperimentationAppendix A: Biographies of Committee Members and StaffAppendix B: Agendas for Meetings of the CommitteeAppendix C: Acronyms and AbbreviationsAppendix D: Definitions of Experimentation Terms Used in Report