Wargaming aboard the USS Kearsarge by Marines of the 22nd MEU © Cpl. Yvonna Guyette, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, 2021
Summary – This e-conference on ” How to advance simulation-based training research in the military and defense industry: improving readiness, performance and innovation “. has brought together two experts: the first, from the Netherlands, was Diederick Stolk, director of Goldsworthy, Stolk & Associates and an expert in the field of simulation at the NATO Center of Excellence for Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) ; the second, from the United States, was Dr. Jennifer McArdle, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and Senior Director for Defense Programs at CAE USA.
The panel was moderated by Hawa-Léa Sougouna, Conference Program Manager for COGES EVENTS.
Here is a summary of the discussion that took place.
Boosting military coalitions training with LVC simulation
Jennifer McArdle explained in her introduction the three different categories of modeling and simulation (M & S) that exist:
- Live: a real person in a real environment (think Tom Cruise in Top Gun playing Maverick).
- Virtual: a real person moving in a synthetic environment (think of everything from a full motion simulator to a simple VR headset).
- Constructive: these are synthetic entities or assets operating in a synthetic environment (e.g. a computer program).
The M & S can be used for all kinds of applications, starting with training, as in the Red Flag exercise. It can also be used to test future concepts, such as ” Project Overmatch”. “Project Overmatch” is a US Navy initiative whose aim is to contribute to the joint integration of command and control operations as part of the JADC2 program for ” Joint All Domain Command & Control “(C2 multi-milieux multi-champs or C2 M2MC in French) initiated by the Pentagon a few years ago].
These exercises do not necessarily involve technology, and wargaming can be reduced to a simple board game or simulation exercise. It all depends on the objective. As Diederick Stolk points out, scenario-based board games and simulation exercises are regularly used to encourage users to think about certain dilemmas and how they would choose to act in certain types of situation. This type of war game can be used to focus exercises and test hypotheses on themes such as: ” What’s happening in Ukraine and what impact could it have on us?
Diederick Stolk has indeed emphasized the historic apprehension surrounding the use of wargames due to their ethereal nature, but notes that since the invasion of Ukraine, they are increasingly appearing to be the right approach. He stressed the need to find inexpensive ways to train, often and quickly, as threats evolve: ” one ofthe best ways to do this is to do it in these play-like settings: contemplate big things at low costs.”
In Jennifer McArdle’s opinion, not only are large-scale exercises rare, but most of the time, military personnel take part in international joint exercises for the first time in real time on the battlefield. The need for increased training of armed forces within the allied coalition, beyond these major annual exercises, is therefore essential.
Simulation and training, known as LVC for Live, Virtual and Constructive, bring together M & S’s three approaches to create a high-level training experience, while enabling military personnel to participate from their home base.
Despite certain obstacles, such as the lack of common standards for the interoperability of certain technologies, the LVC makes it possible to study various tactical and operational concepts within virtual environments, and for the American researcher represents the future of coalition training.
Seeling a modular approach better suited for the evolving nature of M & S
For Jennifer McArdle, the evolution of warfare calls for a modular approach and an open architecture, enabling users to better integrate lessons learned on the battlefield and adapt to them more rapidly. Indeed, the US armed forces have traditionally tended to equip themselves with complex, monolithic large-scale simulation capabilities, making this kind of flexibility more difficult.
Asked about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in this area, the researcher emphasized the evolutionary nature of M & S, pointing out that ” AI can enhance M & S“, as is already the case in the following examples:
- the potential of language processing tools can help to democratize the model-building process, which could make it possible to integrate experts from outside the military community. At present, in fact, the best wargaming experts are not to be found in the latter.
- Reflections on the future of warfare point to the great potential of ” man-machine teams “, which must be developed. The algorithms that will arm the autonomous teammates will work on the basis of machine learning, requiring a solid database. M & S has this ability to create synthetic data sets for the construction of these future wingmen.
While he believes that simulation games are proving outdated in the face of today’s challenges, Diederick Stolk believes that the practice of wargaming itself is still useful and essential for advancing discussion, analysis and lessons learned to help implement new goals. Their purpose has evolved, but they are complementary to science and technology. As far as AI is concerned, Diederick Stolk currently uses tools such as ChatGPT, which considerably reduce the time needed to create a wargame and save him weeks of research.
Breaking down organizational silos to support human decision-making
Both experts emphasized the ” siloed ” approach of individuals and organizations who remain within their respective disciplines, which undermines the whole purpose of wargaming and prevents us from taking full advantage of a particularly rich research ecosystem.
” Wargames bring people together to create a common understanding through play. It is a way of breaking down these silos “The Dutch specialist pointed out that NATO’s CIMIC Center of Excellence based in The Hague could play an important role in bringing these different players together. He also mentioned the important role of universities, and the fact that students help pilot these various wargames. For example, at NATO’s 2023 wargaming conference, the competition to create the most interesting game on multi-domain operations was won by five students from The Hague University of Applied Sciences [Editor’s note: the WIN23 conference – Wargame Initiative for NATO 2023 – was held last June in Rome and organized by ACT (Allied Command for Transformation) (1)].
For Diederick Stolk, it is necessary to create a “gaming culture”within the military by normalizing it and promoting wargaming clubs, similar to the UK Kings College: ” every military academy should have a wargaming club “We have to be careful how we use them.
He pointed out that people often misuse wargames, often using technology that far exceeds what they really need. The questions below are those he suggests asking:
- ” Do I have the right goals? Have I defined them well enough?
- Do I have the right tools?
- Do I buy something because it looks fancy, or do I buy something that’s not very sexy, but does the job well? “
” We really need to understand, or recognize, that wargames are fundamentally about people coming together, not systems. Systems must support decision-making, knowledge creation, analysis, research and development “he added.
What will give us an edge in future conflicts are also in the opinion of Jennifer McArdle”. our teams, their creativity, their agility, their ability to come up with new operational concepts and to think creatively in the midst of fog and friction… The question is how to develop tools to help them in this task. “If “wargames are a very powerful experimental tool” capable of helping solve various types of dilemma, the same can be said of M & S tools if they are well designed.
Both speakers emphasized the complementary nature of wargaming and M&S, highlighting the fundamental work done by Peter Perla on the research cycle in his book ” The Art of Wargaming ” published in 2012 and agreed on the need to place the individual at the center: ” at the end of the day, it’s people who make the decisions “The American researcher concluded by reminding us that technology in this field is neither a panacea nor a“silver bullet”.).
The most important thing is to consider people as decision-makers, focusing first and foremost ” on what you need to achieve, and working backward from there from a developmental standpoint.”
(1) See >>>https://www.act.nato.int/activities/win/