System of systems interoperability types and characteristics in joint command and control

The United States Department of Defense and their Joint Vision 2010 and 2020 articulates the necessity for multinational and interagency cooperation and interdependent command and control for a full range of capabilities. Joint vision relies on system of systems to bridge participant systems with interoperability as a key enabler. To achieve this key enabler, this paper discusses the need for interoperability implementation at the programmatic, constructive, and operational levels. The system of systems interoperability must take into account its unbounded characteristics and engineer constituent systems for syntactic and semantic interoperability and to be system of systems enabled for an omnipresent environment. This paper demonstrates why systems must be managed and engineered as system of systems centric versus systems centric. System readiness levels and integration readiness levels are suggested to manage the constituent systems within a system of systems.