Defence Online

ADF plans for future through analytical wargaming

Land October 20, 2016

Analytical seminar wargaming is being used by defence researchers to provide advice on future-proofing for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and to determine the impact of modernisation decisions within its land force.

The wargames are being used as part of analytical campaigns to identify and understand the breakpoints within the set of possible modernisation choices available to defence. These breakpoints have been identified as critical failures in processes, systems or capabilities.

To enhance these wargaming capabilities, the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST) sponsored a wargame course that was delivered by the US Naval Post Graduate School (NPS) at DST Edinburgh.

Two NPS staff members presented the course to 22 DST and Australian and New Zealand military personnel. The course ran for five days with topics addressing problem scoping, sponsor engagement, data capture and analysis, wargame design and game adjudication. Along with lectures there were also a number of practical activities and exercises, which culminated with the course running two wargames designed by the participants for the DST sponsor.

Defence Researcher and Experiment Lead Marcus Tregenza said: “The wargame approach identifies the causes and impacts of the critical failures. It is unique in the way it captures and revisits key points in the wargame to allow the exploration of significant possible outcomes at these points. It provides an understanding of which aspects of the problem need to be taken into other forms of analysis for further examination.”

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Mark Lane is a defence writer for defenceonline.co.uk and the MoD’s Defence Contracts Bulletin. He is also editor of Global Trader, sub-editor of Insider Scotland and a former editor of Business Today.

ADF Australia International Land Research wargames

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