Guess what? You've got a simulation experiment to do. It supports Force Protection. It is important to your leadership in the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Here are two ways that this could play out…

Situation 1: You did a previous Force Protection experiment last year that has elements of what you want. You look at your support staff and realize that there has been turnover from last year so you do not have the same experts who ran that experiment. Furthermore, some of the machines that ran the experiment have been repurposed. You are nearly starting from scratch. You also have the terrible epiphany that you could be in this boat again the next time you do a Force Protection experiment if conditions stay the same.

Situation 2: You did a previous Force Protection experiment last year that has elements of what you want. The good news is that you captured the knowledge of how the simulations work into encapsulated functional "building blocks." These building blocks can then be put together automatically based on their interface compatibility as required for simulation usage without having to start from scratch. Moreover, you have an interface to allow users to specify scenarios, capabilities, etc., required for their purpose. The fact that you have had turnover in your support team no longer matters thanks to this system. Finally, you have access to a deploy asset manager that can push machine configurations out dynamically to any assets that you want so the changing state of hardware is also not an issue.

This paper discusses how we have taken advantage of U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED) Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) research that makes Situation 2 a reality, focusing on a demonstration of these technologies with the TRADOC Maneuver Support Center of Excellence (MSCoE) in support of Force Protection. To this end, we will discuss a system that is configurable, deployable, functionally appropriate and repeatable, saving hardware and labor costs.

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Keith Athmer