Military forces all over the world are transforming to adapt to the changed world politics. The application of the latest technology is key in this transformation process. Examples of operational changes are more expeditionary operations, joint and combined operations, information data management, and distribution of information. An important area where technology plays a key role in the ongoing transformations is mission training and rehearsal. Developments in modeling and simulation allow Collective Mission Simulation (CMS) in combined and joint settings in a synthetic environment. The Royal Netherlands Armed Forces have explored 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. 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 levels of security classification.

The requirement for this capability initiated the start in 2006 of a 4-year national research program into collective mission simulation (CMS), which focused on effective realism, interoperable systems across domains and management of the mission information flow. In this paper we will describe the main results of our research and address the Dutch vision on enhancing mission training and mission readiness with a national CMS capability. This capability has now been named Orange WAVE (Warfighter Alliance in a Virtual Environment). Orange WAVE will support the national needs as well as facilitate future Dutch participation in live, virtual and constructive coalition training events.