Concept exploration on the virtual battlefield

1996 Defense Science Board Summer Study on Tactics and Technology for 21st Century Military Superiority addressed the challenge of identifying new analytic tools for concepts evaluation, motivated by the evolving ‘new world order’ that changed missions and environments for future war and the increasing Department of Defense investment in information technology for improving future warfighting capability. In support of this effort, an experiment was designed for evaluating new concepts suggested by the Army After Next and Marine Corps Sea Dragon combat development programs and conducted on a future battlefield. The experiment was conducted at the Institute for Defense Analyses using advanced distributed simulation technology including equipment and personnel virtually interacting with a synthetic battlespace. It was supported by the US Army National Guard and US Marine Corps active duty personnel. The Army Research Institute development human performance criteria, provided observers to evaluate human behavior of the individual combatants, and assisted in data analysis from the experiment.