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- Computer Simulation
- WARSIM 2000 is simulation software, used by the armed forces.
- Extensive, thorough, and tiring work has been done on thgis program. It
- covers almost all aspects and situations required for realistic,
- meticulous and a complete simulation. Information Technology has lead to
- the advancement of the tools required to build the simulator.
- Information TechnolgyÆs guideleines and technolgy have reinforced this
- creative simulator
- General Description of Operational Capability. WARSIM 2000 will
- increase the effectiveness of commander and battle staff training by
- dramatically increasing the realism and the scope of the available
- training environment. In conjunction with other services' simulations,
- WARSIM 2000 will provide a complete operational environment with
- scenarios drawn from the entire operational continuum to support Army,
- joint and coalition force training distributed across the globe.
- a. The WARSIM 2000 simulation system will use a computer-based
- simulation and associated hardware to support the training of unit
- commanders and their battle staffs from battalion through theater-level
- as well as to support training events in educational institutions.
- Designed and built using modern computer technology, modern software
- engineering techniques, and validated
- algorithms and databases, it will allow units world-wide to train using
- their organizational equipment. A key feature of the system will be its
- use of technology to minimize the total Army's overhead associated with
- supporting training. The system will be designed to meet emerging
- Distributed Interactive
- Simulation (DIS) standards and protocols to facilitate linkages with DIS
- compliant simulators and live training events.
- b. The WARSIM 2000 simulation system will consist of, or use, several
- components:
- (1) Computer-based battle simulation models that portray the
- joint and combined environment needed to support Army training events.
- (2) Software modules for linking WARSIM 2000 to other simulation
- models to expand the training environment for joint force training
- exercises.
- (3) Databases.
- (4) Computer systems to run the simulation models and support
- the databases.
- (5) Technical control systems/workstations for use by personnel
- in an exercise support function e.g., simulation controllers, analysts,
- and opposing/ surrounding forces role players.
- (6) Flexible and responsive terrestrial/satellite communications
- gateways and media for transmitting voice, data, facsimile, and video
- between different elements at remote locations involved in supporting a
- training exercise.
- c. WARSIM 2000 will meet the Mission Need Statement's (MNS's)
- requirement for providing a training environment that will allow unit
- commanders and battle staffs to focus their warfighters and systems in
- countering threats across the operational continuum. WARSIM 2000 must
- provide an environment that presents problems to stress and stimulate
- commanders and their battle staff to assess the situation, determine
- courses of action, and plan and issue new orders in a timely manner,
- all while using their organizational equipment and procedures.
- d. Logistical support for WARSIM 2000 will be based on a government-
- owned contractor-supported system. The government will own necessary
- hardware, have all proprietary rights to the developmental hardware and
- software components, and full license rights to the non-developmental
- software components of WARSIM 2000. Contracted logistical support will
- provide for the maintenance of government-owned computer hardware at all
- times.
- e. The acquisition and development strategy for WARSIM 2000 must
- abide by several constraints.
- (1) The WARSIM 2000 acquisition must build upon the successful
- infrastructure of current simulations so that the training community
- (Army and international) can train in an evolutionary progressive yet
- consistent manner. The Army has invested significant resources into
- developing its training simulation systems, linking them with other
- service simulations via the Aggregate Level
- Simulation Protocol confederation, and proliferating them throughout the
- Army and the international community. While these systems have
- shortcomings that must be fixed, they provide a training environment
- and representations of combat that have been accepted by the training
- community world-wide. The WARSIM 2000 acquisition must allow the
- confederation of simulations structure to evolve
- in a manner that allows current users (Army and international) to
- maintain access to the confederation without having to make a
- substantial near-term investment in resources.
- (2) Meeting the WARSIM 2000 requirements will demand
- significant technological innovations. However, there are many existing
- and developing systems that could and should be part of the overall
- solution. The acquisition strategy must ensure that developers optimize
- the investment of each service in existing systems (instead of starting
- from a blank sheet of paper) and insert echnology into the training
- environment in a way that improves training.
- (3) Fielding of new capabilities, whether they be functional
- representations or technological enhancements, must be either
- practically transparent to the user or be accompanied by training so the
- user can understand and receive the benefit of the new capabilities.
- (4 The acquisition strategy must allow for regular user
- involvement in the development process. User evaluations and
- requirements must serve as a primary source for determining changes to
- the system.
- 2. Threat. Rather than counter a specific threat, WARSIM will provide a
- training environment capable of representing threats from across the
- operational continuum.
- 3. Shortcomings of Existing Systems. Current simulations were designed
- for training corps and division staffs on command and control techniques
- for Army operations in mid-intensity combat. Current software is bound
- to proprietary operating systems and hardware. The software design,
- especially the underlying representation of terrain, precludes
- representing the detailed functionality required for resolving the high
- resolution interactions needed to train commanders and battle staffs at
- levels from battalion to operational level
- commanders in joint scenarios for war and operations other than war.
- 4. Capabilities Required. WARSIM 2000 will support commander and battle
- staff training from battalion up to theater level. While the major
- simulation models of WARSIM 2000 will run on computers housed in fixed
- regional facilities, transportable Simulation Support Modules (SSMs)
- will provide support functions under the control of a senior controller
- at locations near the training unit. Users of the simulation will train
- under the guidance of a senior trainer, usually the unit's commander,
- the next higher level commander, or an instructor at institutions.
- WARSIM will provide users a complete training environment consisting of
- simulations, data, support functions and communications.
- a. System Performance. The following description of requirements for
- the WARSIM 2000 training environment addresses in turn each of the
- functional components described in paragraph 1.b.
- (1) The Simulation. WARSIM 2000's simulation component must have
- the following functional characteristics.
- (a) General Attributes.
- (i) Size. The model must be large enough to support a
- multi- echelon corps or theater exercise. The model must also be able to
- link to other copies of itself to support larger exercises. The
- simulation must also be able to support multiple, concurrent, smaller
- training exercises, such as several battalion headquarters training
- independently.
- (ii) Weather. The simulation must accurately portray the
- impact that weather elements have on operations (space, air, and
- ground). At a minimum, the simulation must account for the following
- weather elements: cloud amount and height, visibility, restrictions to
- visibility (e.g. precipitation, fog, smoke, dust and sand),
- precipitation accumulation, surface wind direction and
- speed, temperature, relative humidity, altimeter setting, and solar and
- lunar light data. These weather elements must be allowed to range from
- tropical to arctic regions, to vary over the geographic area of
- interest, and to change as often as hourly. In addition, wind direction
- and speed and temperature in a vertical profile up to 70,000 feet must
- be allowed to impact Nuclear Biological and Chemical
- NBC) weapons with changes incorporated at least twice per day.
- (iii) Terrain. The simulation must provide a level of
- resolution of terrain such that tactical considerations of terrain
- analysis and the dynamic effects of man-made or natural occurrences
- (e.g. bomb craters, minefields, battle damage on roads, the obstacle
- effect of rivers, hydrography, and weather) as considered during
- Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) will affect the
- battle. The minimum acceptable tactical considerations include the
- following areas: the impact of line-of-sight (to include sonar and
- electromagnetic spectrum considerations of concealment, thermal, optical
- and radar visibility, and signal site emplacement) between potential
- interactors whether they be sensors or weapon systems, air, ship, or
- ground mounted; the ability of terrain to support the movement of
- personnel, vehicles and units over time, and the accurate portrayal of
- the location of natural and man-made obstacles. The outcomes of the
- simulated events must be sensitive to changes in the weather (described
- above in paragraph 4.a.(1)(a)(ii)) as it affects terrain.
- (iv) Time. The simulation must be capable of running
- faster than real time to a pre-defined point in time or an event, while
- requiring minimal input, and providing summarized output. Users must be
- able to "age" the simulation to accommodate a training scenario that
- describes actions in the midst of a campaign. The senior controller must
- be able to have the simulation start, stop/interrupt, rollback to any
- specified point in scenario, restart from a given point or the initial
- conditions and conduct concurrent replay. The senior
- controller must have the capability to change any attributes of the
- simulated entities or the game characteristics at any time.
- (b) Conditions and Constraints.
- (i) Scenarios. The goal is for the simulation to portray
- events that could arise from scenarios based on any point in the
- operational continuum. At a minimum, requirements are for scenarios for
- war in Europe, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia and Korea and for
- operations other than war in these locations as well as Central and
- South America and Africa.
- (ii) Fidelity. The simulation must allow commanders and
- battle staffs to do their tasks under the conditions and standards
- outlined in the Army Training and Evaluation Program Mission Training
- Plans (MTPs) for command groups and staff referenced in Appendix 1 to
- Annex A.
- (iii) Level of Detail. The simulation must be able to
- portray a level of detail that captures the effects of individual
- entities on the battle, e.g., single weapon platform, emitter, and
- sensor systems. Entities that operate near each other as cohesive units
- can be portrayed in aggregated units from team to battalion that
- represent the normal mode of employment. Individual, low-density,
- entities that operate in a geographically dispersed mode must be
- portrayed as they are employed, e.g., signal nodes, radars, jammers,
- missile and rocket systems, engineer obstacle systems, and individual
- surveillance and laser designation systems. All systems will be
- portrayed using performance data appropriate to the level of
- classification of the exercise.
- (iv) Reports. The simulation must provide feedback to
- the training unit by sending reports of simulated events. These reports
- must be formatted in a doctrinally correct fashion and occur in a
- time-appropriate banner. The reports must not reveal all of ground truth
- but reflect that information that the simulated unit would reasonably
- know given its status, time removed from the reported incident, and
- deployed intelligence assets.
- (v) Human Factors. The simulation must portray the
- effects of operations on the human condition as it relates to combat
- effectiveness. At a minimum, the simulation must consider unit morale
- and cohesion, time subject to hostile actions, availability of religious
- support, unit attrition rate over time, weather, and operational tempo.
- (vi) Simulated Mistakes. The simulation must cause
- simulated entities to "make mistakes" based on a predetermined level of
- training and a variable combat effectiveness determined by human factors
- . The mistakes should be of two types: mistakes in actions taken and
- mistakes in actions reported. Mistakes in actions taken fall along the
- lines of getting lost e.g., arriving at or attacking the wrong location,
- delivering the improper quantities of supplies, or delivering the wrong
- supplies. These types of mistakes will change the ground truth of the
- simulation. Along with reports that are accurate but incomplete, other
- reports will contain information that is different from ground truth.
- These mistakes in reporting will occur when a simulated unit makes a
- report to the training unit that conflicts with ground truth in the
- simulation. These mistaken reports will not change ground truth. The
- simulation must have the ability to provide the correct information if
- challenged for confirmation. The level of training and combat
- effectiveness must change over exercise time with a corresponding
- change in the number of mistakes. The senior trainer must have the
- capability to cause a simulated unit to make specific mistakes during
- the exercise. The senior trainer must be able to easily adjust the
- severity and frequency of simulated mistakes during an exercise to
- include being able to set the level to zero, in effect turning off the
- mistakes. The senior trainer and the After Action Review systems must
- have access to both ground truth and mistakes data.
- (vii) Surrounding Units. Training units, to include
- combat, combat support, and combat service support units that support
- maneuver brigades, must be able to interact with the simulation without
- the presence of any other units. This will require the simulation to
- emulate forward, flank and rear units, supported and supporting units,
- as well as the next higher and lower echelon units, that would normally
- exist on the battlefield, but are not present for the particular
- training event. The simulation must be able to portray dynamic scenario
- and event dependent intelligence and reports concerning the activities
- of these units as well as their requests for information and resources
- from the training units.
- (viii) Multi-Level Input/Output. The simulation must be
- able to accommodate an exercise where different levels (division,
- igade, battalion) are interacting with the simulation. Each level must
- be able to train using the simulation by issuing only its normal orders
- and instructions to the simulation while receiving only its normal
- reports and data from all sources. The simulation must receive and
- present its information in the format and level of detail appropriate
- to the training unit. The simulation-provided information must not
- always be 100 percent accurate. The information should at times contain
- errors that one could expect to obtain in a realistic setting.
- Bibliography:
- ôWARSIM 2000, The Few, The Proud, The... hey theyÆre not there!ö Article
- #45, SIRS Encyclpaedias, Applied Science, 1994.