The Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft Design Reference Mission

A Design Reference Mission (DRM) defines the specific projected threat and operating environment baseline for a given force element, which may range from a single-purpose weapon system to a multi-mission platform to a multi-system, multi-platform system of systems. The Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) DRM provides a notional description of deployed operations for the future MMA. It is primarily an engineering/design tool to support systems engineering activities by identifying significant design-driving operational elements and characterizing them to the level of detail necessary to assess design impact. The DRM is intentionally modular to allow the U.S. Navy to tailor or modify the scenario and its components over time in order to update aircraft operating and warfighting requirements and prospective solutions. To this end, the DRM is envisioned as an evolutionary document that can be revised throughout the acquisition process.