Safety in System-of-Systems: Ten key challenges

A System-of-Systems (SoS) describes a large and distributed network of component subsystems which are themselves complex and autonomous. The goals of a SoS can only be achieved by the interactions of the subsystems and not by any subsystem in isolation. A thematic analysis of the academic literature defining SoS was conducted and the 75 most frequently used words were identified. Based on this, ten key challenges of SoS were identified. These challenges are described in this paper, along with examples from a military case study of a Hawk Jet missile simulation activity. This review is intended to extend the reader's understanding of the current state of knowledge of SoS and to exemplify key challenges in terms of a contemporary safety case study.