Physical Protection System (PPS) Design and Evaluation are crucial to ensuring the security of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) materials. PPSs reduce and mitigate the likelihood that hostile parties might steal or sabotage CBRNE materials. PPSs address this concern by putting engineered measures in place to help detect, delay, and defeat a threat before it achieves its objective.
Sandia’s in-depth Security Technology knowledge, coupled with extensive Systems Analysis and Systems Engineering expertise, are core competencies developed over decades of performing critical work in support of a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrent. As the Labs’ mission evolves over time, this expertise enables Sandia to help the U.S. Government and its partners solve other complex national security problems as well. By applying systems engineering practices to the challenges of physical protection, Sandia helps its partners make informed decisions about where best to apply resources for the most impact.
Developing methodological approaches to design. PPSs are complex systems requiring a well-documented and rigorous approach to providing physical protection that organizes principles and practices into a methodical sequence, resulting in measurably effective PPS designs. In the 1970s, Sandia was tasked by the U.S. Government to employ its systems expertise to develop an improved approach to PPS design and evaluation; the result was Sandia’s Design Evaluation Process Outline (DEPO) methodology.
Addressing system T&E challenges. Sandia focuses on testing and evaluating components and/or subsystems rather than attempting to evaluate operational systems at full scale. Data collected at the component level are combined into reliable estimates of the performance of the overall system using modeling and simulation tools. Sandia develops and maintains capabilities for live testing and evaluation as well as digital modeling and simulation toolkits. T&E strategies include:
- testing elements or components of a PPS that are designed to mitigate adversarial attacks.
- incorporating results from testing in a mod/sim tool to assess performance of mitigation measures in place against a simulated attack.
Conceptual scalability. The overall DEPO methodology is specifically geared toward fixed sites, but its guiding principles and foundational systems-based approach are frequently applied in other contexts, such as transportation and border risk management. Sandia is involved in those areas as well.
- System objectives are still geared toward denying an adversary the opportunity to steal or sabotage key assets (items, facilities, and/or materials).
- Transportation scenarios deal with variable conditions where vulnerabilities are more dynamic. But detection, delay, and response principles are still highly applicable.
- Border Risk Management practices share a great deal of common ground with PPS design methodologies. Both rely heavily on systems engineering and evaluation. PPSs are considered subsystems in the context of border risk management.
Knowledge transfer. Sandia shares the DEPO methodology and provides engineering and scientific guidance to help partners with its successful implementation. This guidance is widely shared via training courses, textbooks, and application principles developed and disseminated by Sandia experts.