Centuries ago, the Mongols spread fear, exaggerated their strength, and even captured enemies through rumors. The use of (dis)information to sway minds is thus not a new concept. However, rapid advancements in information and communications technologies have drastically enhanced the role of such tactics in influencing adversarial decision-making processes and perceptions, as is evident from the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict. The defense industry and governments alike struggle to prepare operators and analysts to effectively identify, mitigate, and strategically counteract these sophisticated forms of digital warfare.

A major hurdle to overcome is the development of effective training means that can emulate the information environment; the arena of modern digital warfare: social media platforms, blogs, forums, and numerous other mediums. Amid the ongoing tug-of-war between privacy and security, the use of real-world data from the information environment for training purposes could usher in a flood of ethical and legal complexities.

In response to this challenge, this study outlines the implementation of a controllable and ethically responsible synthetic information environment in the form of a social media simulator. Central to the study is the development of a link between this simulation of the information environment and the simulation of existing Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). This link results in an immersive training experience for operators, where actions in the MDO simulation can have an automatic and reciprocal effect on the synthetic information environment.

To facilitate a comprehensive evaluation of the proposed training solution, the paper presents an analysis of the information environment and its intersections with traditional operational domains: land, maritime, air, space, and cyber, and its three dimensions: physical, virtual, and cognitive.

In conclusion, a practical demonstration of the integrated simulation architecture is provided, showcasing its efficacy in hosting immersive training experiences, fast-tracking the process of preparing operators for the complex landscape of modern digital warfare.

Keywords
AI;CONTENT GENERATION;INFORMATION WARFARE

Additional Keywords
MULTI-DOMAIN OPERATIONS, SOCIAL MEDIA SIMULATION, DIGITAL WARFARE