ReqFusion: Use of Natural Language Processing to Automate the Integration of Legacy and New Requirements for the United States Air Operations Command.

Abstract

Requirements dictate funding in the United States Department of Defense (DoD); some of these older “legacy requirements” were written up to 40 years ago. There are thousands of pre-existing legacy requirements in the DoD and new requirements are still being created every year. Sorting through the legacy requirements to find out if one already exists is a tedious task. We created a tool for the Air Operations Command (AOC) to integrate the new and legacy requirements to output combined requirements and allow the AOC to receive funding for their program plans. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that allows computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language. We used various pre-trained NLP models and the Groq API to develop an NLP system that combines similar requirements. We created ReqFusion which is a web application that leverages this NLP system. Users can upload new requirements to the web app, which are integrated with pre-existing legacy requirements provided to us by the DoD. Integrated requirements are outputted into a CSV file for compatibility and as a data table displayed on the web app. ReqFusion can optimize determining and allocating funding in the DoD so that programs can be carried out and capabilities can be delivered sooner.