BRIDGING THE GAP: OPERATIONAL UTILITY IN S&T TO IMPROVE TECHNOLOGY TRANSISTION

Defense acquisition presents unique challenges to the Science and Technology (S&T) process. Due to the nature of the S&T environment, often the requirement for a particular capability is not explicitly driven by an identified operational need, but by a technology developed in the commercial market. Often these projects present a challenge in the operational domain for S&T programs. Their use would represent a significant change to the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel, Facilities and Policy (DOTMLPF-P). Work must be done to define the future operational environment and DOTMLPF-P considerations that would be in place at some point in the future when the technology could probably be fielded. This paper presents a methodology for developing a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for emerging technologies at the System and Sub-system level.