Warfighter Simulation program provides training for battle command

As computers become more powerful and simulation software becomes more realistic, America's technological leadership will push its military capability far beyond its current dominance to a new level of sophistication. Once regarded as a past-time for nerds and geeks, simulation software is becoming so advanced that it is training a new generation of command to make good decisions in the heat of battle. Lockheed Martin's computer-based Warfighter Simulation program WARSIM was last week selected as one of the US Department of Defense's Top Five Software Projects by a panel of government and industry judges. WARSIM is a computer-based constructive simulation and the Army's next generation command and control training environment.

David R. Castellano, Deputy Director for Assessments and Support, Systems Engineering Directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, presented the award at the Systems & Software Technology Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"WARSIM will revolutionise the way the commander and staff trains and conducts mission rehearsal in the Contemporary Operating Environment," explained Col. Kevin Dietrick, project manager for constructive simulation at the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

"WARSIM's architecture provides the flexibility to interface to other live, virtual and constructive training simulations simultaneously, while employing their organic Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) systems and equipment."

The program is designed to support U.S. Army commander and staff training for brigade through echelons above Corps. Army units world wide can train in their command posts using organic C4I equipment, minimizing simulation-related overhead.

"The system uses state-of-the-art distributed simulation standards and protocols, providing a comprehensive joint environment capable of linking its simulated constructive entities with virtual (simulated) and instrumented (real) vehicles," explained Ed Payne, Lockheed Martin WARSIM Program Manager. "WARSIM has an open architecture that enables it to federate with other existing or future simulations."

The initial version of WARSIM was delivered to Fort Leavenworth, KS, in December 2004.

The WARSIM mission, as part of the Army Constructive Training Federation (ACTF), is to fulfil Army requirements for training forces in all aspects of command and control.

WARSIM supports the Army’s Training Transformation Master Plan, which prescribes improving the command and control of Army units by training leaders and command-post staffs in a simulation environment. This training is vital to Battlefield Functional Mission Area concepts for command and control.

The next-generation software of WARSIM, OneSAF, and other simulations will be integrated into the ACTF and will become the cornerstone simulations of the ACTF objective system that will support Army and Joint training requirements.

The ACTF strategy will provide a Proof of Principle exercise in FY05 and a training exercise capability starting in FY06. WARSIM provides realistic operational exercise conditions: threat, terrain, and weather in a Contemporary Operational Environment for commanders and staffs using their organic C4I systems. WARSIM will significantly enhance and strengthen Army battle command training through significantly improved realism and reduced exercise support staffing, and with extensible architecture to live and virtual training.

WARSIM is a key enabling program for training the Army's current and future force commanders and staffs. It is a critical component in the Army Constructive Training Federation (ACTF) that will help bring about a second revolution in military training," stated Dr. Jim Blake, Deputy Program Executive Officer at STRI.

"WARSIM will fulfill the Army requirement for training its forces in all aspects of command and control. ACTF models will provide full training functionality for leader and battle staff computer-based simulation training throughout the Army, Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental and Multinational spectra."