Mission Training through Distributed Simulation (MTDS) has established itself as a powerful tool for collective training in the military domain. This potential has been recognized by the Italian Joint Forces Command and has led to the Italian participation in the 10th edition of Exercise Joint Project Optic Windmill (JPOWX) in September 2008. Over the past decade, JPOW has become the world leading Joint Air and Missile Defence (JAMD) exercise where, next to collective training, an important focus is on experimenting with novel air and missile defence concepts, new tactics, techniques and procedures, and testing future capabilities in a multinational live, virtual and constructive environment. In 2008, over 1500 participants from seven nations at three dispersed locations joined JPOWX. The Italian Services participated at AFB De Peel in the Netherlands with simulated capabilities of an AN/TPS-77 radar (Air Force), an Andrea Doria Horizon frigate (Navy), and a SAMP/T unit (Army). These simulations were developed by TNO in JROADS and by ELSAG DATAMAT in Kesem Battlemodel.

In this paper we will describe how the Italian Services used their joint participation in JPOWX to train, exploit, test, and evaluate their recently developed JAMD CONOPS for the first time. We will present the key lessons learned, both from the experimental and the actual mission execution phases of the exercise, with a special focus on mission objectives, analysis and assessment. We will also describe how the exercise participation and use of simulation supported not only joint training and cooperation but also enabled collective thinking on integrating air and missile defence concepts for the Italian Services through the key role of simulation in the envisaged comprehensive Italian JAMD approach. We will conclude this paper by elaborating on the operational, organisational and technical requirements that should be met to successfully accomplish this approach.