The Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Joint Experimentation was established to examine the joint experimentation programs and activities at the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and to recommend ways to enhance the contributions of joint experimentation to transformation. The Task Force assessed the goals, process, and substance of JFCOM's experimentation program. The Task Force also provided an external review of the Millennium Challenge 02 (MC02) experiment. Specifically, the Task Force reviewed Joint Forces Command's campaign plan for joint concept development and experimentation (CD&E) in several sessions from November 2002 to March 2003. The plan was in a state of considerable flux during this period, for example, with some changes influenced perhaps by the interim reports the Task Force provided to the Commander JFCOM and the Director of JFCOM s Joint Experimentation Directorate (J9). Since the campaign plan has continued to evolve since the Task Force's exposure to it, this report does not attempt to provide a detailed evaluation. Instead, characteristics are described that would make a joint CD&E campaign an effective agent for transforming U.S. military capabilities. Observations about the results of MC02 event, based on brief presentations to the Task Force, are also offered.

The Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Joint Experimentation was established to examine the joint experimentation programs and activities at the Joint Forces Command JFCOM and to recommend ways to enhance the contributions of joint experimentation to transformation. The Task Force assessed the goals, process, and substance of JFCOM's experimentation program. The Task Force also provided an external review of the Millennium Challenge 02 (MC02) experiment.

Events of the past decade provide compelling evidence that the national security environment continues to evolve at a rapid pace and in unpredictable directions. Further, it is clear that meeting the demands of the evolving environment calls for new levels of adaptable military capabilities that, in turn, demand joint forces that are responsive and effective across a range of operations from small scale operations through major theater conflict. In the two most recent major contingencies - Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) - we have seen new levels of understanding of the need for truly integrated joint capabilities and new levels of innovation in leveraging existing capabilities to achieve the needed level of effectiveness. Lessons Learned activities have verified important shifts in focus leading to a series of emerging concepts for more effectively integrating capabilities.