Development Of Simulation Software In Military Training And Gaming Systems

Transcription

1 Development Of Simulation Software In Military Training And Gaming Systems Mr Andrew Mitchell Senior Technical Professional Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) Government Operations (Asia Pacific) Abstract. The term simulation conjures many thoughts to all who hear it. In almost all cases, on hearing simulation most of us think of arcades and games mixed with a healthy dose of fun. Today s military organisations are for a variety of reasons making more and more sophisticated use of simulation. The problem facing almost all military organisations is the shrinking budget. Making sound and considered use of simulation, through gaming, in training and military gaming ensures that many of the minimum on-going requirements are met and that training cycles are maintained. What is wargaming, why is becoming so important and where can it be used? The development of the Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving (MCD) Gaming capability for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was well defined and indeed procurement had been commenced prior to the Australia s involvement in the recent Gulf Conflict. Using the lessons learned and the additional operational knowledge and experience gained from that engagement will make for a mature and well-balanced gaming capability. This paper makes a brief journey into the development of simulation software by the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) for the RAN in a specific force environment for the precise purpose of the conduct of Gaming. This capability, currently under development and construction is to enable the conduct of the Gaming of Courses of Action (COAs) particularly in the Operational environment at the Task Group level of command. 1. AIM The aim of this paper is to present a general interest topic paper that explores and provides a measure of detail regarding the development of wargaming for a specific target audience. This paper seeks to show that there are many cases, this being one, where simulation is better than reality. This paper does not seek to describe the positioning of simulated wargames into specific technologies. 2. INTRODUCTION Simple abstract wargames have been played by men of all ages for thousands of years. Until the 19th century the games were little more than variations of children's toy soldiers. They were just entertainment. This paper follows the development of MCD Gaming for the RAN as a developmental wargame capability. For the purpose of this paper it is assumed that there are three basic levels of wargaming; these being; Strategic, Operational and Tactical. The MCD Gaming capability is clearly focused and targeted at the Operational level of wargaming and sets out to achieve the ability of the wargaming of COAs. Any potential link between the RAN s MCD gaming and any form of commercial wargaming is purely accidental and there is no intended on-sell or commercial entity for the selling of this capability post development to the traditional commercial wargaming arena. The MCD gaming capability is being developed specifically for the RAN to use with within the MCD fraternity. There are countless sources of commercial wargaming applications that are on the market today and they range from arcade games through to complex strategical wargames that use a chess like application. The upside in the explosion of civilian interest in what gaming is, is the growth in the number of military personnel with gaming interests and skills for whom wargames hold no fear or mystery, and are a potential useful untapped resource for today's military. 3. PURPOSES OF WARGAMING

2 Military men when not fighting in a war, seek to improve their proficiency in the conduct of war and their understanding of war. The former is achieved through training and education the latter through analysis. The analytical applications of wargaming include the development of operational support tools or decision, research and evaluation tools. Operational support tools include automated battle management systems that classify and prioritise the threats to relieve the human decision makers of that mechanical task and highlight the immediate threats of which they must concentrate. Research and evaluation tools can be used for weapon system development and evaluation Combat Development and a range of Force Assessments. The Force Assessments can include force capability and Requirements Assessments including Course Of Action assessment for such things as crisis management, force mixed assessments, Force Effectiveness Assessments and Resource Planning including Personnel and Logistics Management. The Analytical Gaming is aimed at assisting in the formulation of doctrine strategy and policy treats issues more broadly and is of more immediate relevance to the military. The issues arose in such documents as the Dibb and Wrigley reports, the Defence White Paper with other such manuals being well suited to examination by analysis and gaming. This could lead to Refinement of Doctrine and Tactics strategies and policies. 4. HUMAN PARTICIPATION The degree of human participation in wargaming ranges from total involvement in a manual game to zero human input in some analytical computer games. The games are all designed to varying degrees to exercise human decision making or exclude human issues and processes and should only use computers to manage the mechanical aspects of the game. 5. WARGAMING TODAY Today wargaming is again very popular in military circles as a result of the coincidence of many factors. These factors include improvements in the art itself and economic pressures that forced the abandonment of other techniques. Much more realistic wargames can now be developed. Powerful but relatively cheap new computers can manipulate huge databases and simulate very complex realities. In recent years many innovative gaming techniques and mechanics have been developed to facilitate new approaches to problems and further enhance the realism of wargaming. Wars are becoming less frequent and of a short duration, so the number of combat experienced warriors is dwindling. This increases the need for realistic training. At the same time meanwhile, the soaring cost of military equipment and manpower continued to force defence planners and trainers to turn to simulation as an affordable means training and analysis. 6. RANDOMNESS [1] The armed forces do not always operate perfectly in war. Unforeseen equipment malfunctions and human error have often snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Wargames must as a matter of their design and development allow for the occurrences of Murphy's law. Wargames must be able to introducing chance or randomness to simulate the uncertainty inherent in conflict. Games are must be included as effective learning tools because they require players to act and active learning is the best kind. Games also encourage the spirit of competition, and when games are played by teams, the competition builds team spirit and cooperation. 7. WARGAMING TO DEVELOP DOCTRINE In the age of machine warfare doctrine, has tended to be driven by technology. In 1914 the doctrine of mobile warfare was invalidated by 50 year-old technology which imposed the stalemate in the trenches in 1915 and Technology provided a solution to the problem in the form of highly mobile tracked well-protected assault vehicles driven by internal combustion engines. Such a weapon system had first been proposed and rejected years earlier. It took doctrine another 25 years to catch up to the technology embodied in the tank. History has shown that over the years and decades, forces around the world have needed to develop new doctrine. The RAN is no different from any other military force and it must also consider how to develop and validate doctrine in an ever changing world. 8. WARGAMING TO DEVELOP STRATEGY [2] Today the ADF must prepare for complex contingencies in our region. Political and economic factors surprisingly similar to some of those facing early inter-war Germany will impact severely on the military in many of the credible contingencies. In the context of complete wargaming, the ability to game will give military and non-military members and staff a better idea of the nature of constraints within which they may have to operate and give the politicians and public servants an appreciation of military realities. This may perhaps encourage them to develop more realistic attitudes and policies.

3 8.1 Tactical Wargaming [3] Tactical wargaming is the form of the art most easily visualised by the layman. It is also the most complex and difficult level of Warfare to simulate. Many commercial wargames are Tactical Combat Simulations and much professional military wargaming has always been, and will probably continue to be tactical. By virtue of being truly three-dimensional, the simulation of tactical combat is the most likely to require automation. There is scope to start with simple wargames for limited tactical training applications with a view to building up an awareness and acceptance of gaming and this would help players to determine their longer-term wargaming requirements. It is not always known exactly what is needed until a few wargames have been played and an understanding of the technique reached. To some extent there is already a limited acceptance and incorporation of such capabilities within the ADF but it could be said that much, much more needs to be done in this arena. 8.2 Pace-Of-Operations Most simple wargames operate on the principle that only one side moves at a time, so a player moves all these units to the limit of the range and initiates his attacks before the other side is allowed to react by making any move. This structured turn system is convenient in terms of playability and may be adequate for set piece Napoleonic Warfare but it is unrealistic for modern warfare. [4] In umpired or computer games, the fluid simultaneous nature of warfare can be simulated by having both sides input movement and combat plans for each turn simultaneously. The control group then resolves them on the battlefield simultaneously. In most computerised wargames it is also relatively simple to introduce surges of effort for high-tempo operations. Detailed logistics and serviceability tables to allow short-term burst of intensive usage of consumables spares and ordnance used by individual units or assets at the expense of longterm stock levels support element readiness and other sustainment factors. Computer number crunching made such complex calculations easier to manage. [5] All of these aspects of introducing a variable tempo of operations and realistic action/reaction dynamics can increase the uncertainty and complexity of the decision-making problems for players. In this particular case, it allows the exercising at variable levels of pace and complexity of the MCD Task Group Staff to extract different training or mission rehearsal outcomes. 9. SIMULATION AND THE ADF Currently the ADF and in particular the RAN are exploring and grappling at all levels with ways and means that the use and integration of simulation to both training and operational readiness can be integrated. Current Defence policy and guidance regarding simulation [6] is inter-alia; that the greatest possible use and deployment should be made of simulation, that simulation must be implemented in a structured and useful way, and that wherever possible, simulation should be used to save costs and increase benefits. These guidelines are further expanded and explained within the Defence Simulation Plan [7]. It is both of these documents that have also guided the functional identification and composition of the MCD Gaming capability. 10. OUR TARGET FORCE FOR SIMULATION The RAN s Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving (MCD) Force Element Group (FEG) is homebased at HMAS WATERHEN in Sydney with one of the dive teams also located at HMAS STIRLING in Western Australia. Given the geographical dispersion and the need for both separate and integrated training, the power potential of tactics and doctrine wargaming is immeasurable. 11. AIM OF THIS DEVELOPMENT MCD Gaming is the wargaming component of the Mine Warfare Tactical Command Software (MINTACS) being developed for the RAN MCDFEG. It is installed on selected platforms of the Mine Warfare Command Support System (MWCSS). Wargaming is the simulated conduct of a military operation and is performed to evaluate, analyse and assess COAs or for training purposes. MCD Gaming is the subset of total possible wargaming relevant to the operations of the RAN. MCD Gaming enables the MCD FEG and operations staff together with the Mine Warfare Faculty (MWF) to conduct gaming activities in support of both operational assessments and evaluations, and MCD training Gaming in support of COA Analysis MCD gaming can be used to compare and evaluate different Courses of Action by executing each COA under different conditions, and assessing the possible outcomes. The outputs from the game can become inputs to the MINTACS COA Assessment Matrix. This is the direct application of the Joint Military Appreciation Process (JMAP). JMAP calls for a selection of COAs to be developed in response to each Directive. The

4 development of COAs takes considerable time, effort and resources and following each work-up, each COA must be evaluated to consider which COA is best suited and has the greatest prospect of success and mission accomplishment. The JMAP policy states that each candidate COA must be wargamed as part of the suitability assessment. It is here that this product currently under development shows the first sign of establishing that simulation is better than reality. If each COA must be implemented with real assets under real or near-real conditions, there is great potential for assets to be lost or broken and significant opportunity for the use and loss of time that may not enhance the outcome. The use of simulation in a virtual world exercising in accelerated timescales is the best implementation of COA suitability assessment with oversight by trained and competent operators Gaming In Support Of Training In addition to the operational or analysis roles and functions, MCD Gaming can and will be used extensively in the training role. MCD gaming allows the trainee or syndicate, to conduct and execute the roles and functions of an MCD staff member within a realistic operational environment. This allows the conduct of training in a real or nearreal training environment without the need to commit and support expensive and complex weapons platforms. It has the added advantage that training can be done at any time, at any place regardless of the weather or prevailing conditions. The gaming capability provides the functionality to set up, initiate and manage operational training scenarios with substantially less expense than would be involved in an exercise employing real assets. The outputs from the game become inputs to the Instructor for the assessment of syndicates. This training role make the process of refresher, ongoing and remedial training easy to conduct and ensures that errors can be traced and discussed in a non-threatening post mission environment Gaming in Support of OSD MCD gaming allows the Operational Support and Development (OSD) Cell to execute the operational functions within a realistic environment. The gaming capability provides the functionality to set up, initiate and manage operational real scenarios with substantially less expense than would be involved in an exercise employing real assets. The outputs from this activity become inputs to other tool-sets and mechanisms in the quest for new, innovative and robust doctrine and derived tactics in an ever changing world. The OSD cell are charged with amongst other activities the validation of doctrine and tactics. These require constant evolution as new technologies; new trends and most importantly new threats are recognised. It is the OSD cell that prepares the tactics employed by the RAN in the conduct of Mine Countermeasure operations. The use and employment of MCD Gaming adds significantly to the ability of the RAN to conduct and evaluate the current doctrine and tactics against current threats and enables the development of new and revised doctrine and tactics in an ever-changing military world System Description In brief, the MCD Gaming capability is a PC based system that is integrated to the tactical software. It is installed to the defence secret network making it deployable to any required User location. It can also be installed to laptop computers making it useable in the field and on-board ships if the need arises. To enable the conduct of training in areas where the access to the Secret network is not available or not permitted, the same software can be installed to the Defence Restricted network. This allows the inclusion to training and development by particularly foreign students who would ordinarily not be permitted access to the Defence Secret network. Presently, it is intended that the majority of the gaming activities will be conducted at HMAS WATERHEN, but as the maturity of the RAN increases this may change System Design The MCD Gaming system has been designed to be a component of the Tactical Software application suite. Building the software with this aim has enabled it to be a selectable install application. That provides the freedom of choice as to whether there is a need to have gaming installed at a particular workstation or location or not. Following system analysis, it is already clear that not every User will require the use and employment of the MCD Gaming application. In software development terms, this means that the software suite can be tailored in the building and application of the Application Installation Kit so that specific User profiles attain pre-determined and specific access to software components. The MCD Gaming software application has been built aimed at notionally having up to four syndicates in each gaming environment, however, no hard-coding has been included, so the number of syndicates becomes dependant upon factors outside the software. Such factors are, number of available students number of available instructors and mentors and the complexity of the scenario.

5 Create Game Prepare Game MCD Gaming Create Mission Instructor / Umpire / Mentor By virtue of the construct of the levels within the game, it allows the interactions between mines and assets to be managed. It is this interaction that determines the success or otherwise of any given COA within a scenario. Figure 3 provides a typical scenario within the tactical software being executed by a syndicate. MCD Gaming Controller Manage COA (Operation) Create COA Syndicate Operator (Game Player) «extends» «extends» «extends» Generate Signal «extends» Obtain Optimal COA Base MINTACS Run Game «extends» «extends» MWF Student MCDTG Use Algorithm Sim Use Monte-carlo Sim MW OSD Figure 1 UML Diagram of the design concept 11.6 Using the System The MCD gaming software is used in conjunction with the MCD tactical software. The gaming syndicates use the tactical software to plan and conduct their respective operations within the virtual or game environment. The gaming software allows the game to be established, builds the syndicates and establishes the access and security controls. The overall gaming software also provides the visual cues to the respective syndicates regarding their game state. When the syndicates are established, each syndicate then builds their own COA based on the Operational Directive using the tools, information and processes built into the tactical software. Planning for MCM operations uses the Military Appreciation Process (MAP) that under ADF directives requires the use of simulated gaming. This is normally conducted as a two-step process. The first, where all possible COAs are gamed and then the second time where the preferred COA is gamed following full development and planning. This process is defined within [11] ADFP 9 and is illustrated at Figure 2. Figure 3 Tactical Display software screen showing operational status As the game progresses, the game controller is able to add or remove events from the game scenario. From a raw training perspective, this provides significant flexibility to avoid flooding a syndicate. This events cue is illustrated at Figure 4. Figure 4 Event screen showing cued and waiting events. The game continues until a point is reached where the objective is obtained, desired route clearance is achieved, a prospective COA is deemed unsuitable or a prospective COA is deemed to be the possible successful candidate and is further expanded and receives deeper planning and subsequently implemented as the Operational Plan Where Are We At Now, And Where Are We Going? Figure 2 - Joint Military Appreciation Process. [12] At present, the MCD Gaming capability has reached Release 1 of the software. Present planning has at least 2 more releases planned prior to the

6 gaming capability being subsumed totally into the on-going tactical software development. Figure 5 shows the high-level UML diagram of the future development. The present software requires a significant amount of interaction and activity on the part of the game controller. However, in contrast, the present software build has proven the underlying fundamentals of the concept and the correctness of the design intent. In order to reduce the level of required activity on the game controller, future releases of the software will integrate automation on most of the game occurrences. This means that significant effort and development will be expended on the determination, design and implementation of specific agents and models. These models will account for such instances and occurrences as refuelling/resupply, mine find/mine destruction and course changes at the completion of segments and laptracks. Also included are the operational occurrences and updates to intelligence information, for example the re-seeding of a minefield by enemy forces. MINTACS High-level System Component Diagram System Access Game Engine and various sources. Examples of these sources are; service specific capability studies, government Defence directives and specific sources such as the Dibb Report and Defence 2000 White Paper. For example, in the Defence 2000 White Paper, [13] it provides extensive requirements for the development of command and control and the development of command support systems and the inclusion to and extension of the Knowledge Edge. It is within this guidance that the overall MWCSS resides. The Defence 2000 White Paper further expands the identification of the RAN s MCM Forces including the Clearances Divers and EOD activities. [14] The MCD Gaming capability is being specifically developed to assist and augment current training systems and equipment in the preparation of the RAN s MCM Forces and the maintenance of skills and expertise. 13 Acquisition Strategy This capability is being developed under a Standing Offer arrangement. The software is being developed using an Incremental Development approach via the Unified Software Development Process (USDP) published by Rational. This process ensures that development is specifically targeted at User needs, targets the increasing level of maturity of the RAN for mine warfare and provides the User Community with significant opportunity to effect and drive both the direction and priority of the software development. It is this same development process that is being used as the contractual development vehicle for all of the related software applications by the MWCSS Project. Simulation Engine MCD Gaming Database Monte-carlo Engine Figure 5 UML of future smarts development 12 How Does This Satisfy The Overall Requirements? 14 Conclusion The MCD Gaming capability will augment the tactical software being developed for the RAN for the command and control, conduct and evaluation of Mine warfare operations. The MCD Gaming capability will provide the ability to game and hypothesise the development of doctrine and tactics without the associated risk to resources and assets. A true virtual development capability. From the MWCSS Project s perspective, the ultimate requirement is to satisfy the Detailed Operational Requirements (DOR) Document. It is this document that is generated within the Capability Division and provides the authority for the Project to acquire and deliver, and defines the scope of the development and delivery. The contents from the DOR are derived from many

7 BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] McCarry Peter, SQNLDR This is not a game Wargaming for the Royal Australian Airforce, p 26; RAAF Air Power Studies Centre, 1991 (ISBN: ) [2] McCarry Peter, op cit, p 57. [3] McCarry Peter, op cit, p 58. [4] McCarry Peter, op cit, p H4. [5] McCarry Peter, op cit, p H5. [6] Defence Instruction General OPS 41-1; Defence Simulation Policy Dated 3 Oct [7] Defence Simulation Plan, Part 1, Dated Aug [8] ADSO Defence Simulation Proposal Guide, First Edition 4 October 2002, Sect 2, p 10. [9] ADSO op cit, Figure 2-2, p 18 [10] ADSO op cit, Figure 2-3, p 21 [11] Australian Defence Force Publication 9 (ADFP 9) Joint Planning, Second Edition [12] ADFP 9 op cit, Fig 8-2, p 8-3. [13] Defence 2000 White Paper, Our Future Defence Force, pp 56, 94. [14] Defence 2000 White Paper, op cit, pp