Integrating military unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system : an application of value-focused thinking and enterprise architecting

Abstract

The research presented in this thesis presents a methodology compatible with the Department of Defense (DoD) Capability-Based Assessment (CBA) process for analyzing and recommending appropriate enterprise architectures for the challenge of integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the national airspace system (NAS). Thesis organization is sub-divided into four sections. Section I provides the introduction, context, and recent efforts of the UAS airspace integration challenge and the underlying motivations driving the increased desire to see UAS better integrated into the NAS. Section II details the methodology used in the analysis by extending various value-focused, lean enterprise constructs using rigorous object process methodology (OPM) to describe and build alternative enterprise architectures. Section III applies the methodology to the UAS airspace integration problem specifically with the development and selection of a preferred enterprise architecture and a recommended transformation plan. Section IV concludes with a discussion on extending the methodology for specific application back into the CBA process, the issues involved in creating an executable model for enterprise architecting, and final thoughts on the iterative nature of the methodology and the need to further refine the initial results with the UAS airspace integration enterprise decision makers.