Table of Contents: Program Manager Interviews Gary Smith, SOCOM Acquisition Executive; Naval Postgraduate School; SECDEF Speaks at NDU Joint Operations Symposium-QDR Conference OASD Public Affairs News Release; 1997 Acquisition Research Symposium - Report And Highlights; DSMC Graduate Tapped to Lead Army's Acquisition Corps; Program Stability - The Kaminski Initiative. Also in this issue --Breaking Up is Hard to Do; From Our readers; DSMC, San Diego Conduct Technology-Based Education and Training Trial Run; Industry Managers Participate in Field Trip; DSMC Conducts Successful Ninth International Acquisition/Procurement Seminar with German Federal Academy; Western region Picks Up Where Central region Leaves Off; Front End Work Pays Off for Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support (DMLSS) Program; and From the Commandant.

Table of contents include: (1) Longuemare Endorses Two Important Modeling and Simulation Documents; (2) Simulation Based Acquisition; (3) Modeling and Simulation Use in the Army Acquisition Process; (4) Air Force Space Command Establishes First Space Battlelab; (5) Modeling and Simulation - A New Role for the Operational Tester; (6) SPY-1D(V) Models and Simulations Support Operational Testing in a Remote New Jersey Cornfield; (7) Put a Virtual Prototype on Your Desktop; (8) The Theater Missile Defense System Exerciser; (9) A New Vision, Further Leveraging Emerge From Orlando's Simulation Superstructure; (10) National Simulation Superstructure; (11) Integrated Ship Defense Modeling and Simulation Pilot Program; (12) Integrated Acquisition-Logistics Synthetic Environments for Total Value Assessment; (13) Why is Modeling and Simulation So Hard to Do? and (14) Air Force Modeling and Simulation Trends.

Critical Code contemplates Department of Defense (DoD) needs and priorities for software research and suggests a research agenda and related actions. Building on two prior booksâ€"Summary of a Workshop on Software Intensive Systems and Uncertainty at Scale and Preliminary Observations on DoD Software Research Needs and Prioritiesâ€"the present volume assesses the nature of the national investment in software research and, in particular, considers ways to revitalize the knowledge base needed to design, produce, and employ software-intensive systems for tomorrow's defense needs. Critical Code discusses four sets of questions: To what extent is software capability significant for the DoD? Is it becoming more or less significant and strategic in systems development? Will the advances in software producibility needed by the DoD emerge unaided from industry at a pace sufficient to meet evolving defense requirements? What are the opportunities for the DoD to make more effective use of emerging technology to improve software capability and software producibility? In which technology areas should the DoD invest in research to advance defense software capability and producibility?

This synthesis report will be of interest to officials and staff of municipal, regional, and statewide transportation agencies responsible for roadway design and traffic control. It will be of special interest to those concerned with intersections and driveways on divided highways where larger vehicles encounter narrow medians. It will also be of interest to other professionals who interact with these agencies to mitigate such problems. This report presents state-of-the-practice information about current median design policies and practices, describes the traffic operational and safety problems encountered in designing for larger vehicles at divided highway intersections, and identifies alternative improvement techniques that can be used in new construction or reconstruction projects to avoid introducing traffic operational and safety problems. This TRB report focuses on 10 alternative cross sections widely used on arterial highways in urban, suburban, and rural environment.

Covers central topics in information systems modeling and architectures. Includes the latest developments in information systems modeling, methods, and best practices.