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Wargaming at the Naval Postgraduate School

Published in Journal of Cyber Security and Information Systems
Volume: 4 Number: 3 - Modeling and Simulation Special Edition: Wargaming
Authors: Jeff Appleget, Fred Cameron, Robert E. Burks and Jeff Kline
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Way Ahead

The NPS resident Wargaming Applications course is currently working on four sponsored wargames this fall. Global SOF Force Structure (SOCOM J-3I), Countering Transnational Organizations (SOCCENT), Iranian Threat Network (SOCCENT) and Theater Anti-Submarine Warfare (U.S. Navy) wargames are currently in development and will be completed and played for their sponsors in December 2016.

NPS is currently developing a classified wargaming workshop to support CENTCOM’s newly formed Wargaming Cell with a delivery date in the winter of 2017. CENTCOM is currently pursuing a long-term relationship with NPS that will include recurring Basic Analytic Wargaming MTT courses, periodic Advanced Analytic Wargaming courses, and consulting on CENTCOM wargames as needed.

Several Basic Analytic Wargaming MTT courses may be delivered in 2017. Potential sponsors include NAVAIR (China Lake), Joint Experimentation (Australian Defence Force), U.S. European Command, and NATO. The New Zealand Defence Force is considering a course in the FY 18-19 timeframe.

Some sponsors of the NPS Basic Analytic Wargaming course have asked for a two or three-day course that focuses on advanced analytic techniques. NPS is developing a proposal for such a course in response to Australia’s DST-Group’s request.

Under an OSD Wargaming Education Initiative, NPS will develop an automated education and assessment system that will permit a lower-cost, time-saving delivery of wargaming skills to DoD, allied and partner organizations. The vision is to take the existing NPS Basic Analytic Wargaming MTT course and develop a two-phased wargaming course (Basic Analytic Wargaming Fundamentals (BAWF) Phases I and II) that will be less resource intensive yet still provide a high-quality wargaming course for DoD, allied and partner organizations. Basic Analytic Wargaming Fundamentals (BAWF) Phase I will provide the means to acquire and assess basic analytic wargaming fundamentals education that students learn on their own without live instruction through a web-based asynchronous education and assessment website. BAWF Phase II will be a three-day, hands-on, instructor-led practical exercise-based MTT course for a group of 12-16 students who have demonstrated proficiency in the basic analytic wargaming fundamentals as assessed by BAWF Phase I. A prototype of the BAWF I system will be completed by September 2017.

Under sponsorship of CRUSER, the Warfare Innovation Workshops will continue to kick off the Warfare Innovation Continuum each September. The value to NPS students are an emersion in design thinking, conflict assessment, and being exposed to potential thesis research topics. CRUSER will continue to mine this activity to seed research funds into unmanned systems.

Global ECCO is currently working on updating several of its previously developed strategic games to better support specific sponsor requirements. In addition, future strategic games include efforts addressing the issues of boarder security and countering weapons of mass destruction proliferation.

The NPS MMOWGLI team is currently developing a game in support of the NPS Littoral Operations Center to better understand the dynamic interactions of the U.S. Navy with allies and partners in the South China Sea.

Conclusion

NPS continues to provide analytical wargaming education to its students and to DoD and defense partner organizations around the world. Wargaming sponsors continue to benefit from wargames created and analysis conducted by NPS student wargaming teams, and NPS continues to enhance its students’ professional development by providing opportunities to work with joint and service sponsors on operational warfighter requirements and analyses worldwide. Our joint, service, and international defense partners benefit from NPS educational expertise and engagement through our MTT outreach, building stronger defense partnerships in a dynamic security environment. NPS stands ready to support DoD, its allies, and its partners through our operationally-experienced multiservice and multinational student body and our world-class faculty.

Authors

Jeff Appleget
Jeff Appleget
Dr. Jeff Appleget is a retired Army Colonel who served as an Artilleryman and Operations Research analyst in his 30-year Army career. He teaches the Wargaming Analysis, Combat Modeling, and Advanced Wargaming Applications courses at NPS. He also teaches week-long Basic Analytic Wargaming Mobile Training Team (MTT) courses, with the most recent offering conducted in Adelaide, Australia for DST-Group (the Australian Government’s Defence Science and Technology organization). He is the Joint Warfare Analysis Center (JWAC) Chair of Applied Operations Research at NPS. His research interests include Irregular Warfare and Stability Operations modeling, Amphibious Operations modeling, Wargaming, Combat Modeling, and Integer Programming. He was a member of the NATO SAS-091 Specialist Team (2012 Research and Technology Organization Scientific Achievement Award winner) that developed metrics to support decisions for the transition of responsibilities from ISAF to the Afghanistan Government. His other major awards include the Richard W. Hamming Faculty Award for Interdisciplinary Achievement (2016), Army Modeling and Simulation Office Analysis Award (2011), Dr. Wilbur B. Payne Memorial Award for Excellence in Analysis (1991 and 2003), Simulation and Modeling for Acquisition, Requirements, and Training (SMART) Award (2001 and 2003), and 1990 Concepts Analysis Agency Director’s Award for Excellence. He served on the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Board of Directors from 2000-2004.
Fred Cameron
Fred Cameron
Mr. Fred Cameron joined the Canadian Department of National Defence in 1974 upon graduation in mathematics from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He recently retired after more than 35 years as an operational research analyst. He has since been appointed a scientist emeritus by the Centre for Operational Research and Analysis in Ottawa. During his career, Mr. Cameron provided operational research for all three Canadian military services. From 1976 to 1978 he supported NORAD in its North American air defence mission. He then spent three years in the Netherlands with NATO, with a focus on air operations in the European theatre. From 1983 to 1988 he led the OR team in Victoria, British Columbia supporting Canada’s west-coast navy, and had close collaboration with analysts at US Third Fleet on naval operations in the northern Pacific. His introduction to army problems came in 1988 with assignment to the Directorate of Land Operational Research in Ottawa. From 1998 he led an OR team in Kingston, Ontario dealing with future concepts for the Canadian Army. Mr. Cameron deployed to Macedonia and Kosovo in 1999 to provide OR support to the Commander of the Canadian Contingent in KFOR. Mr. Cameron has been an advisory director of the Military Operations Research Society since 2009.
Robert E. Burks
Robert E. Burks
Dr. Robert E. Burks, Jr. is a Senior Lecturer in the Defense Analysis Department of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). He holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research form the Air Force Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Operations Research from the Florida Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the United States Military Academy. He is a retired logistics Army Colonel with more than thirty years of military experience in leadership, advanced analytics management and logistics operations who served as an Army Operations Research analyst at the Naval Postgraduate School, TRADOC Analysis Center, United States Military Academy, and the United States Army Recruiting Command. He has led multiple analytical study teams responsible for Army Transformation (organizational change) issues and his work includes applying analytical methods to develop solutions for complex problems in support of the Combined Arms Support Command, the Army’s sustainment think tank and premier sustainment learning institution. In addition, he has served as the technical expert on studies involving deployment, equipping, manning, training, and logistics operations of military forces in multiple theaters of operation. He currently teaches the Modeling for Decision Making and Statistics Courses at NPS. His research interests include Irregular Warfare and Stability Operations modeling, Information Operations modeling, Wargaming and Agent Based Modeling and Simulation. His recent major awards include the Military Leadership Award (2013), Joint Service Warfare Award (2013), Military Operations Research Journal Award (2011) for developing analytical methods for solving the Theater Distribution Problem, and the Omar Bradley Fellowship for the Study of Mathematical Sciences (2011).
Jeff Kline
Jeff Kline
CAPT Jeff Kline, USN (ret) is a retired naval officer with 26 years of service, two ship commands, and time as a naval analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Jeff is currently a Professor of Practice in the Operations Research department and holds the Naval Postgraduate School‘s Chair of Systems Engineering Analysis. He teaches Joint Campaign Analysis, executive risk assessment and coordinates maritime security education programs offered at NPS. Jeff supports applied analytical research in maritime operations and security, theater ballistic missile defense, and future force composition studies. He has served on several U.S. Naval Study Board Committees. His NPS faculty awards include the Superior Civilian Service Medal, 2011 Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) Award for Teaching of OR Practice, 2009 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Homeland Security Award, 2007 Hamming Award for interdisciplinary research, 2007 Wayne E. Meyers Award for Excellence in Systems Engineering Research, and the 2005 Northrop Grumman Award for Excellence in Systems Engineering. He is a member of the Military Operations Research Society and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science.

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