The Department of Defense has used live, virtual and constructive (LVC) technology primarily in the training and testing communities. We feel that LVC technology has significant capabilities in the operational realm as well and built two proof of concept applications to demonstrate how military organizations can use such technology operationally in the planning processes.

Chapter V of Joint Publication 5-0: Joint Planning lists the seven steps of the planning process as:

Planning initiation
Mission analysis
Course of Action (COA) Development
COA analysis and wargaming
COA comparison
COA approval
Plan or order development

Each service has its own publication which lists the steps its staffs should follow in planning, but, except for combining steps 1) and 2) above into one, they generally follow these closely. We used LVC technology to improve steps 3-6: developing, analyzing/wargaming, comparison and approval of COAs.

The two applications, one for planning ground operations and another for planning air missions, display the plan in a Unity-based environment which allows the planners to easily see the location of blue forces, reported position of red forces, mission objectives as well as terrain. It provides information, such as line of sight determinations, that are not readily apparent from maps. It also allows planners to alter the locations and paths of units to develop COAs.

After finalizing, each COA is then sent to a constructive simulation, where it can be run multiple times. We used COMBAT XXI for the ground simulation and Next Generation Threat System for the air mission. The results from these simulation runs are returned to the virtual environment, where the staff can analyze the wargame results to compare COAs. It also provides an easier to understand result for the commander to approve.

Ryan Lee

Affiliation

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Using LVC Technology for the Military Planning Process