An Army-Centric System of Systems Analysis (SoSA) Definition

Over the course of the last several years there has been much discussion of a concept called the system of systems (SoS), and many proposed definitions that capture features of various SoS. These numerous definitions offer the means to identify SoS; yet, from an analytical point of view, we feel they do not offer the clarity required to construct a well grounded framework to analyze these SoS. Over the course of our research to develop such a framework, we realized that there is another perspective from which to view the notion of a SoS. This perspective, rooted in the analysis of a military SoS, explicitly recognizes three existential concepts present in any military SoS that are also likely present in non-military SoS. The purpose of this report is to highlight these concepts, and relate them to the base of established literature regarding SoS. Prepared in collaboration New Mexico State University Physical Science Laboratory, Las Cruces, NM. The original document contains color images.