Wargames
at War
Military Wargames, Models and Simulations
The US military maintains an inventory of nearly 600 different wargames, simulations
and models. Some of these are quite arcane, especially those dealing with various aspects
of electronic warfare. A lot of them are over thirty years old, including ATLAS, one of
the oldest and ill conceived models ever put to use. Wargames are a minority among this
600, with most being models, plus a lesser number of simulations. Most of these items are
used for examining very narrow issues. Typically, these are models developed to support
some engineering need. There is a tremendous need for models of this type, as any
competent engineer will want to model a new system thoroughly before handing it over to
the troops. Similar models are also used as training devices for the troops using the new
weapons systems. Unfortunately, this plethora of engineering type models has, quite
naturally, heavily influenced the design of simulations and wargames within the military.
This is only natural. With so many models in use, it's hard to avoid using models as your
prototype for developing simulations and wargames,
These 600 items were largely created by civilian contractors (the "beltway
bandits") who draw their staff from academia and retired military personnel, the rest
are created by active duty troops or civil servants. In the last ten years, about five
percent of all military officers have received some OR or wargames training, and
increasingly these military gamers are creating the militarys wargames without assistance
from the beltway bandits.
Operations Research and wargamers (they tend to be clumped together) have their own
organizations within the military, led by an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems
Analysis. Each of the services has one large, and several smaller organizations devoted
largely to OR and wargames work. The Mational Defense University (for all services, in
Washington) and each of the services War Colleges have active wargaming operations.
The army has the CAA (Concepts Analysis Agency, in the DC area), which provides wargame
analysis to supports new doctrine, weapons and tactics as well as justification for budget
requests. The army also has its TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) headquarters in Ft
Monroe, Virginia, where a lot of systems analysis is done. The air force has a Studies and
Analysis operation in air force headquarters at the Pentagon, providing the same services
as CAA, but with less emphasis on wargaming. The navy has its Center for Naval Analysis in
the DC area which, like the air force, does more analysis than wargaming.
Most of the wargaming is done outside Washington. The army has a major wargaming
operation at Ft Leavenworth, as well as several TRADOC Analysis Centers (TRAC). White
Sands, New Mexico (where missiles are developed) is another analysis center. The bulk of
the detailed analysis (and a lot of the gaming) is done at the branch schools (Armor,
Infantry, Artillery, etc.) Ft Lee, Virginia (the logistics school) is where the army does
most of its OR training and some wargaming. Weapons effects data is obtained from the
Aberdeen (Maryland) Ballistic research Lab and other facilities at Aberdeen. Note that
much of the data coming out of Aberdeen over the years was later found to be inaccurate,
either because the information request was not understood or the wrong data was sent and
the inaccuracy was never discovered until much later (if at all).
The navy does most of its wargaming at its Newport News (Rhode Island) war college. The
Navy operation is the oldest, largest and arguably the most effective in the world. The
Naval Post Graduate School (Monteray, California) is the Department of Defense center for
degree study of OR.
The air force has a relatively new wargaming center at their war college in
Mississippi.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Group (at the Pentagon) does analysis for budget requirements
and planning, as well as some wargaming.
Washington, DC based contractors tend to supply the bulk of games and simulators used.
Because there are so many experienced wargamers in uniform, wargaming projects have been
popping up all over the place. Many, if not most, of these games do not get entered into
the official inventory of nearly 600 Department of Defense wargames, models and
simulations.
In practice, only a few dozen of the 600 official wargames are widely used. Through the
1980s, a flood of new wargames came into official use, largely inspired by the commercial
wargames available in stores and a recognition of a need for new wargames that performed
better than the old ones.
Overview
The Military
Experience with Wargames
Table of Contents
Chapter 9 Contents