Trends in large scale systems-of-systems for multi-national missile defense

A Missile Defense System (MDS), outside of a specific application within a single country of manufacture, is architecturally a system-of-systems (SoS). It is a coupling (sometimes tight or loose depending on configuration) of independently managed components, subsystems, and discrete systems that must work together in difficult environments against capable threats. We define a Multinational Missile Defense System (MNMDS) as an MDS with these and other complex characteristics. We describe a number of drivers of the future of command and control in a MNMDS in the areas of engineered resilient systems, human-machine teaming, and regionalization. We then look at the large-scale SoS implications, network-centric operations (resource allocation and dynamic networks) and the systems concepts that embrace computational intelligence as a means for a more automated MDS.