The JMEM Production
Contractor for the Joint Technical Coordinating Group for Munitions
Effectiveness (JTCG/ME) was awarded to OSU in June 2001 with an effective date
of July 1, 2001. We are in our 35th year of support to the JTCG/ME. We provide
research, analysis, and computational support to four major joint service
working groups within the JTCG/ME involved with the production and
dissemination of classified conventional munitions effectiveness data. We also
provide technical editing, graphics composing, and document design/layout
support to publish reproducible copy of all JMEMs and JTCG/ME Special Reports
according to military standards. The Oklahoma State University Engineering Research
Field Office (OSUFO) is located on Eglin AFB, Florida with a satellite office
at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. JTCG/ME provides nonnuclear munitions
effectiveness information for DoD targeteers, weaponeers, and planners;
operational commanders; weapon system designers; and logisticians. The
information includes damage/kill probabilities for specific weapons and
targets, physical and functional characteristics of munitions and weapon
systems, target vulnerability, obscuration impact on weapon effectiveness, and
analytical techniques and procedures for assessing munitions effectiveness.
This effort has resulted in a library of classified and unclassified JMEMs and
standardized methodologies capable of rapidly generating effectiveness data
over a wide range of delivery parameters for air-to-surface,
surface-to-surface, antiair, and special forces weapons. The JTCG/ME is
organized with four major working groups: JMEM/Air-to-Surface,
JMEM/Surface-to-Surface (including Special Operations), JMEM/Antiair, and
Vulnerability to cover the spectrum of weapon effects issues. In addition, a
formally chartered Operational Users Working Group (OUWG) supports each JMEM
working group. The JTCG/ME Program Office is the focal point for all JTCG/ME
efforts. They coordinate the efforts of the working groups while the execution
of those efforts is the responsibility of the working group chairmen.
JMEM/Air-to-Surface is involved in the development of methodologies and
analysis of data that assess the effectiveness of weapons launched from the air
at targets on the ground. JMEM/Surface-to-Surface assesses weapons delivered
from the ground at targets on the ground. JMEM/Antiair assesses weapons
launched at air targets. The Vulnerability Working Group supports the other
three working groups by assessing a target's loss of capability when impacted
by a weapon's damage mechanisms. The Vulnerability Working Group also develops
models of air and surface targets for use in calculating munitions
effectiveness. The OSUFO is organized into four weaponeering branches aligned
with the JTCG/ME Working Groups. The OSUFO Publications and Graphics Branches
are functionally organized to give maximum support across all working groups.
OSUFO personnel coordinate on a daily basis with the working groups and the
Program Office. They also work with other JTCG/ME contractors who are
developing methodologies or working on target vulnerability studies to ensure
their efforts will support JMEM production schedules and needs. The OSUFO
performs development and weapons effectiveness analyses as well as supports the
working groups in their efforts to obtain weapons data from the government
program offices and the weapons contractors. The OSUFO's major responsibility
is to produce JMEMs on time, based on working group schedules, with the
capability and data required by the government. The 49-employee effort is
divided 60 percent to 40 percent on a functional basis between
research/analytical support and technical publishing support.
Research/analytical activity includes development, documentation, and
maintenance of sophisticated computer programs designed to produce classified
conventional weapons effectiveness data versus a broad spectrum of surface and
airborne targets. Research activity also involves the collection and analysis
of detailed weapon system characteristics data and target vulnerability data
that provides inputs for weapons effectiveness programs. The technical
publishing function, working interactively and concurrently with OSUFO
analysts, involves technical editing, illustrating, composing, and document
design/layout required to produce high-quality documents to strict military
standards. These documents include paper and electronic media products.
Currently, there are over 400 JMEMs and JTCG/ME Special Reports. OSUFO
personnel also provide the expertise to network and manage the data processing
systems in a classified mode of operation. JMEMs were used in planning strikes
during the Vietnam War, operations in Libya, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf, Panama,
Desert Storm, and more recently in Operation Southern Watch, Bosnia, and
Kosovo. JMEM data are also widely used for training targeteers and weaponeers
at service schools, conducting exercises, and supporting deployment contingency
planning.
Sponsor: U.S. Air Force
PIs: Karl N. Reid, Arthur J. Rosenbaum