Concept development for comprehensive operations support with modeling and simulation

Abstract

Modern warfighting is not only conducted on the physical battlefield but also engages actors in the information and human landscapes. Across these landscapes many types of actors characterize a comprehensive environment. A commander and staff follow the operations planning process to translate a desired end-state to tactical effects and activities. Understanding the interactions between actors and factors that shape conflict and understanding how they can be influenced is highly challenging. Modeling and simulation methods that aim to describe and understand the behavior of complex systems can serve to structure information, derive problem insights, and identify effective interventions. These methods are not, however, common as part of operations planning and intelligence processes. This paper documents findings based on reported experiences from practice and based on concept development and experimentation workshops conducted with Dutch Armed Forces stakeholders. We identify eight challenges to the adoption of modeling and simulation in operations planning. We then present a decision support concept that incorporates several elements to counter the challenges identified in the form of a prototype approach called Comprehensive Operations Support with Modeling and Simulation (COSMOS). We describe the approach along several process steps, illustrated by examples from the concept development and experimentation case studies. We identify several avenues for future research assisting adoption of modeling and simulation in the operations planning process.