Generation and delivery of weather products for military applications and users has taken on ever increasing complexity in light of recent developments in the field of meteorology, and increasingly complex user needs. Operational fine scale numerical weather prediction models, new satellite based sensors, global requirements and operational demands have increased the demands on processing power and bandwidth. This trend will undoubtedly increase with new generation mesoscale modeling systems, and sensor systems and derived products from next generation geostationary and polar orbiting satellites.

The Systems Engineering, Management and Sustainment (SEMS) program provides systems support for the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), the strategic center for weather for the U.S. Air Force and supplies all weather-related information to the Air Force, Army, and many federal agencies. AFWA provides meteorological analysis and forecast support to Army and Air Force units worldwide, supports weather forecasting and severe weather prediction by civilian agencies, and participates extensively in the meteorological community’s advanced weather research. AFWA is the largest supplier of weather data for military users worldwide in supporting front line combat operations and mission support, mission planning, and routine flight operations support.

As the prime contractor on the SEMS project, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) has the responsibility for AFWA systems including the Global Theater Weather Analysis and Prediction System (GTWAPS), Satellite Data Handling System (SDHS), the Joint Air Force & Army Weather Information Network (JAAWIN), the Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System (SWAFS) and Cloud Depiction and Forecast System II (CDFS-II). The primary goal of SEMS is to support AFWA systems, which provide an integrated depiction of global weather from earth’s surface out to space. Currently over 32 GB of weather products are generated per day, almost 60 GB of satellite imagery are collected and processed, from over 10 satellites, nearly 10,000 surface and over 3500 upper air observations are assimilated and processed into the data base and shared among applications.

This paper describes the current state of support provided to AFWA under SEMS, and an overview of the enterprise. We will describe the advantages of architecture modernization in terms of treating the enterprise as a system of systems, one that SEMS offers. We will present some examples of effective systems engineering and its impacts on operational support and reduction in total ownership costs. We will discuss the transition of current systems, migration processes and metrics used in monitoring component systems in an effort to effectively monitor the health of the current systems, to reduce operating costs and effect the modernization and enhancement of existing systems to improve mission support. Our staff is actively involved in not only the maintenance of present day AFWA component systems but in the transition from legacy, stove-piped architecture to a more modern, highly integrated, efficient, fault-tolerant enterprise using state-of-the-art systems and information exchange technologies.

The primary goal of SEMS is to enable AFWA to achieve more timely, accurate and reliable weather information to the end user. Future improvements introduced and maintained by SEMS will improve spatial and temporal depiction of the weather; characterization of the weather from “mud to sun”; accurate, precise, and highly tailored weather products for combat mission teams and operational weather squadrons; and mission planning and assessment of weather effects (impacts) on component combat systems. Our progress to date in this ambitious project will be summarized.