DoD
U.S. ARMY
DREN/SDREN
ATEC
AMRDEC
U.S. NAVY
U.S. AIR FORCE

US Army Test & Evaluation Command (ATEC)

The United States Army Test and Evaluation Command, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia was formed in 1999. ATEC plans, conducts and integrates developmental testing, independent operational testing, independent evaluations, assessments, and experiments in order to provide essential information to decision makers.

ATEC is located throughout the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, where it rigorously tests items of every description ranging from individual weapons to Network Missile Defense ground-based systems. During any given day, approximately 1,100 tests are ongoing in the U.S. and around the world. There are a significant number of programmatic and technical challenges encountered when developing and conducting distributed simulations coupled with live test capabilities. These challenges range from the obvious issues to the not so obvious communications infrastructure, latency, time synchronization, test control, and personnel issues. The ATEC Test Integration Network (ATIN) provides a common architecture across ATEC for distributed testing. The objective of ATIN is to provide connectivity to all testing assets and to deliver the data, first to evaluators and, ultimately, to the decision makers. ATIN utilizes the Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) as a backbone for inter-range and intra-range communications.

WCI has provided in-depth engineering support to ATEC in the following areas:

• Assess the network posture of the facility. Interview management and system administrators, review documentation, validate system inventories, network connections and network diagrams, validate and evaluate installed hardware and software at the site, detail the configuration settings for each system, network device and software application, and highlight opportunities for network performance improvement.
• Assess the security posture of the facility, including network security, application security, physical security, procedural security, and personnel security. Conduct vulnerability scans, identify the security deficiencies, and propose steps for mitigation.
• Prepare an Advance Implementation Plan for each site that identifies all applicable security requirements, documents required configuration settings for compliance, and details hardware and software baseline configuration.
• Perform a Cost of Ownership study that identifies personnel and infrastructure requirements necessary to maintain an optimal level of performance. Assess job roles and responsibilities, recommend additional manpower or ‘skill sets’ required, and develop a technology roadmap for scalable and affordable upgrades to maintain minimum Quality of Service levels and minimize obsolescence.