Role of Experimentation in Building Future Naval Forces

The Department of Defense is in the process of transforming the nation'sarmed forces to meet the military challenges of the 21st century. Currently, theopportunity exists to carry out experiments at individual and joint service levels tofacilitate this transformation. Experimentation, which involves a spectrum of activitiesincluding analyses, war games, modeling and simulation, small focused experiments, andlarge field events among other things, provides the means to enhance naval and jointforce 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 therole of experimentation in building future naval forces to operate in the jointenvironment. The NRC formed the Committee for the Role of Experimentation inBuilding Future Naval Forces to perform the study.