Joint Mission Environment Test Capability (JMETC)
Richard Lockhart
Test Resource Management Center, Arlington, Virginia
Chip Ferguson
JMETC, Arlington, Virginia
During the past six years, utilizing the concept of Joint Operations has become standard for successful
U.S. military combat. The need for Joint interdependency and Joint systems interoperability during
combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq is irrefutable. Consequently, Joint lessons learned are
rapidly being incorporated in combat operations and Service/Joint training programs.
However, Joint lessons have proven to be elusive and slow to take hold in the Department of
Defense (DoD) acquisition and testing communities. Despite the popularity of the common
catch phrase ‘‘Born Joint,’’ many systems are fielded without a rigorous and credible test of their
capabilities in a Joint operating environment. Performance of Joint systems must be evaluated
in a Joint environment, and the only way to do that effectively, efficiently, and early in
acquisition is to link distributed high-fidelity test facilities creating a realistic Joint
environment. However, the proliferation of unique, noninteroperable, and expensive testing
infrastructures remains widespread within the DoD.
To effectively and efficiently test systems in a Joint environment, the DoD needed an
enterprise-level LVC distributed test capability using a common infrastructure. The Joint
Mission Environment Test Capability (JMETC) program was initiated in FY 07 to meet that
need. This article provides a brief description of the JMETC program and the capabilities it is
providing, as well as its recent accomplishments.
Key words: Integral Fire 07; InterTEC Spiral 2, Build 1; JMETC program; JMETC
Users Group; JMETC Virtual Private Network (VPN); LVC; Object Models; reuse
repository; warfighter.
T
he proliferation of unique, nonintero-
perable, and expensive testing infra-
structures remains widespread within
the DoD. The current DoD test
community contains a number of
stand-alone test resources that:
N Lack a standard capability to collaborate and
exchange data between facilities, which can result
in duplicate efforts among similar programs
N Contain unique software that must be integrated
for each test activity, adding to test preparation
time and expense
N Use data definitions that are often unique and
noninteroperable, complicating integration into
Joint systems and system capabilities
N Require long lead times to establish security
agreements needed to link them together on a
network for each test (most such agreements are
generally in effect for one test event).
The lack of universal tools and a common
infrastructure also impacts test planning, coordination,
and execution. Each program spends time and money
establishing or re-establishing a live, virtual, and
constructive (LVC) test environment and a network
configuration for each test.
The JMETC program is a new program, formally
established in October 2006. In actuality, the need for
JMETC was established years earlier as reviewed in
this section.
In March 2004, the Strategic Planning Guidance
(SPG) on Joint Testing in Force Transformation
stated that developing and fielding Joint force
capabilities requires adequate, realistic test and evalu-
ation (T&E) in a Joint operational context. The SPG
ITEA Journal 2008; 29: 160–166
Copyright ’ 2008 by the International Test and Evaluation Association
160 ITEA Journal
