Mission training and rehearsal are vital to successful operations. Advances in modeling and simulation (M&S) technology now allow for Collective Mission Simulation (CMS). The Royal Netherlands Armed Forces have exploited CMS through participation in a number of virtual exercises. The potential of collective mission simulation has been recognized and the requirement for a CMS capability was formalized. Such a capability is characterized by effective realism, interoperable systems across domains, and seamless information flow. Within the next few years the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces want to establish a validated, reusable, interoperable mission simulation environment that will support the distributed simulation of tactical and operational missions at varying degrees of security classification.

This CMS environment must support the armed forces in adapting to changing world-politics, new mission types and new technology. Examples of trends in operational changes are more expeditionary operations, joint and combined operations, information data management, and distribution of information. Major technological trends that impact the way the armed forces operate in the near future are automation and information technology, unmanned systems, better sensors, and smarter weapons. This means that the CMS must support joint and combined simulations, and be able to flexibly incorporate new simulations of new operations and technology.

In this paper we propose an approach to the development of CMS environments such that an effective use of the available assets is obtained. The effective use consists of a balanced appraisal of utility, validity and correctness criteria; all related to the intended use of the M&S assets. We first describe the engineering model from a theoretical perspective. Then we discuss how the effectiveness criteria are related and can be determined in practice. Our approach is demonstrated by a use case where part of the method has been evaluated.