Skip to content
← All case studies
Department of War · 2024 · Defense / C2

Operational Test & Evaluation — Command & Control Systems

Structured OT&E for a multi-domain Command & Control capability — executed under aggressive milestone pressure, with acquisition-grade evidence as the deliverable.

T&E C2 White Team
▌ Illustrative Sanitized — figures representative of similar engagements.
Mission threads
0
Test events
0
Operators in cohort
0
Findings traced
0
01
Challenge

A new multi-domain C2 capability was scheduled for a milestone decision in 18 months. Three stakeholder groups — program office, operators, and the approving authority — held three different working definitions of "success." There was no agreed mission-thread set, no shared MOE/MOP framework, and the existing test plan inherited from the contractor would not survive operational scrutiny. We were asked to deliver an assessment package that would hold up across three layers of executive review.

02
Approach

We started not with a test plan but with a one-page success agreement that the three stakeholder groups had to sign. Then we decomposed validated requirements into mission threads, mapped each to Measures of Effectiveness and Measures of Performance, and built test cards that could be executed by the operators themselves rather than contractor staff. Through execution we ran the White Team — keeping Blue (operators) and Red (adversarial play) honest while preserving the chain of evidence back to the requirements.

  1. 01

    Decompose

    Validated requirements decomposed into mission threads with MOE/MOP mapping. One-page success agreement signed by program office, operators, and approving authority.

  2. 02

    Plan

    Test cards built against mission threads. Thresholds negotiated up front, not retro-fitted to data. Independent of developmental testing by design.

  3. 03

    Execute

    Operators ran the test events. We ran the White Team — recording observations, enforcing the test design, keeping the assessment honest under operational stress.

  4. 04

    Analyze

    Quantitative findings tied to MOE/MOP. Every claim traced back to the measured condition. Threshold-vs-objective scored separately, not collapsed.

  5. 05

    Report

    Acquisition-grade evidence package that survived three layers of executive review. Plain-language exec summary on top, full methodology and data tables beneath.

03
Outcome

Delivered an acquisition-grade assessment report with quantitative findings traced to every MOE, including the conditions under which each was measured. The report supported the downstream milestone decision and six findings were adopted into the next-block engineering plan.

Impact
  • Assessment report accepted at the milestone decision
  • 12 of 14 mission threads scored at threshold or better
  • Six engineering findings adopted into the next-block plan
  • Methodology re-used as the template for a follow-on engagement

Have a similar program?

Tell us what you're scoping. We respond within two business days with a candid read on fit.