As a small nation, Singapore has limited human resources, land and airspace. The strategic use of M&S to help us overcome these constrains is therefore crucial. We thus formulated our simulation masterplan, called the Vision for SAF Simulations (VSS) back in the mid-90s, and JEWEL (Joint M&S Environment for Wargaming & Experimentation Labs) was conceived as the simulation environment in support of VSS. This enterprise-wide approach to simulation is very much analogous to what is happening in the business and C2 worlds.

Designed with reusability and interoperability as its primary precepts, JEWEL would be an open software environment that allows the incorporation of new technologies and standards from governmental, commercial and / or R&D bodies, and would be a launching platform from which new application needs can be satisfied accurately and quickly. To maintain openness and as a result future proof, DSTA believes that substantial attention must be devoted to its information architecture, both in terms of representation as well as content, as demonstrated in our adoption of HLA and XML, among other standards. JEWEL would support the SAF in training, analysis, experimentation and acquisition.

The first part of this paper is dedicated to JEWEL, its development rationale, philosophy and overall structure. Part two focuses on the key design considerations of the Distributed Simulation Engine (DSE), the core component of JEWEL. In the third part, the Joint Battle System (JBS), which is based on JEWEL and is being used by the SAF Centre for Military Experimentation (SCME), will be introduced to exemplify the key capabilities of JEWEL. Finally, some elaboration on potentially fruitful future directions will be attempted, based on known technological and application trends.