Search Results

The Department of Defense (DoD) faces a similar challenge to the broader aerospace community in that they must integrate and operate a range of systems developed independently over a long period. It has proved difficult for the DoD to manage this network of systems and they must explore other options for analyzing and managing their systems. This paper explores the application of social network analysis tools and metrics to a network of aerospace systems within the U.S. Air Force. The structure of the network includes over one hundred U.S. Air Force systems including, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, munitions, satellites, and command and control systems. The paper describes two separate networks based on direct connections and shared activities between these systems. For each of these networks measures of centrality, degree, closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector, quantify both the interoperability and versatility of the U.S. Air Force systems.

In recent years, the increasing complexity of modern aerospace systems has driven the rapid adoption of robust Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). MBSE is a development methodology centered around computational models, which are instrumental in supporting the design and analysis of intricate systems. In this context, the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) and Systems Modeling Language (SysML) are two prominent modeling languages for specifying and analyzing the structure and behavior of a cyber-physical system. Both languages have their own specific use cases and tool environments and are typically employed to model different aspects of system design. Although multiple software tools are available for transforming models from one language to another, their effectiveness is limited by fundamental differences in the semantics of each language.