An important aspect when planning a military operation is the ability to see various possibilities and assess consequences of a plan. To this end, wargaming can be used for assessing possible courses of action (COA) of own and enemy forces. Traditionally, this is done by drawing tactical graphics and moving pieces representing military units on a large map. We propose that computer-assisted wargaming holds a potential to help commanders visualize and evaluate different possibilities, beyond what is supported by the traditional method.

We have developed a minimal prototype of a system for supporting operations planning “Simulation-Supported Wargaming for Analysis of Plans” (SWAP). The system consists of a simulation system that runs in the cloud and a simple, intuitive web-based user interface that does not require a lot of training. The user interface has basic functionality for terrain analysis, such as route planning and identification of favorable vantage points around a target area, and the user can give units basic tasks and create phase lines to coordinate the units. Once a COA is specified, the user can choose to execute the COA, upon which the underlying simulation system simulates the planned tasks and shows possible consequences such as engagements, time expenditure and resource consumption.

In February, we conducted a study with 52 cadets from the final year at the Norwegian War Academy as subjects. The purpose was to test the basic functionality of SWAP in comparison to the traditional way of wargaming for COA analysis. The cadets were divided into groups and asked to make COA Decision Briefs for two different battalion operations, one using SWAP and one using the traditional method.

In this paper, we describe SWAP and discuss the potential and requirements of such a system for operations planning based on the results of the study.