Stepping outside the reality box

Military planning from 2003 called upon the U.S. Joint Forces Command and the services to address six initiatives, which would advance a system-wide transformation in the capacity to fight the war on terror. These initiatives include protection of critical bases, projection of forces in anti-access/area denial environments, denial of sanctuary to terrorist groups through surveillance, improvement of informational operations during combat, improved survivability of space systems and infrastructure, and leveraging of technology to advance joint command and control. This mission is here described as a system of systems. This perspective allows focus on the weakest link in the execution of the mission. This article presents the reality box model pf problem solving and its deployment in the transformational process. This and other analytical tools are presented in brief here to illustrate a means for achieving greater refinement of the system of systems construct.