Distributed Training and Distributed Simulations: Imperatives for Success in Military Operations Other than War

1
Distributed Training and Distributed
SimulationsImperatives for SuccessinMilitary
Operations Other than War

• Warren H. Switzer, Ph.D.
• AB Technologies, Inc.

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Introduction

• Since the End of the Cold War
• World neither peaceful nor stable
• International environment increasingly complex
• US Military
• Mission spectrum expanded Budgets
  reduced
• Enemies less traditional Its
  tasks multiplied
• Changes Not a Matter of Choice - Driven by Major
  changes in the Economic, Political,
  Technological, and Cultural Sectors
• Many Situations Neither Caused Nor Solved by
  Armed Force, However, Our Opponents Will Fight,
  and at THEIR Level
• Probabilities for Involvement in Situations
• Like Desert Storm -- Remote.
• Like Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, the Drug
  War, and Natural Disasters -- Virtually Certain.

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Operations Other Than War (OOTW) are Inevitable

• Decision for US Involvement Taken Years Ago
• Presidential Decision Directive 56 focuses on
  managing complex emergencies,
• National Military Strategy includes
• The purpose of our Armed Forces is to deter and
  defeat threats . . .
• we must also respond to a wide variety of
  other potential crises.
• And,
• The security environment . . .includes threats
  to our country and
• our interests that are not war in the
  classical sense, and yet . . .
• require the use of military forces, . . .. In
  addition, military resources
• will continue to support civil authorities in
  executing missions such
• as civil works, disaster relief, and domestic
  crises.
• See Presidential Decision Directive-56, Managing
  Complex Contingency Operations, May 20, 1997, pp.
  2-3.
• John M. Shalikashvili, National Military
  Strategy, Executive Summary, (Washington, D.C.
  The Joint Staff), 1997. P.1. and John M.
  Shalikashvili, National Military Strategy,
  (Washington, D.C. The Joint Staff), 1997. P. 4.

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Military Already Performing Many OOTW Operations

• Not a Question of If but of How
• US Military not limited to Active Component
  Reserves, National Guard Roles will Expand
• US borders not a limit

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Nature of OOTW/Complex Emergencies

• May have few traditionally military features
• Weaponry may have little use (most sophisticated
  almost no use)
• Tendency to use military - viewed as having
  assets and organization, rapidly deployable, and
  paid for
• May not place the military in its normal
  leadership role
• Focus of main effort not combat military in
  supporting role
• Execution habitually is reactive
• Most governments ignore situations hoping they
  will go away
• Identifying difficulties marred by poor
  perception and reporting
• Bureaucratic inertia particularly determining
  who pays

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The Military Response to the Changed Environment

• Pragmatic reasons for less-than-enthusiastic
  responses
• Mission Considerations
• Mission appropriateness
• Mission primacy
• Psychological Considerations
• Budgetary Considerations
• Authority
• Legal Requirements
• Security
• Attempts to be a stand-alone entity -- in but
  not of
• Breaks down in practice

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Training Problems Associated with OOTW

• Rationale - Non-Combat Training Comes at Expense
  of Combat Training
• Simplicity - OOTW/Complex Emergencies are Not
  Simple
• Focus on Essentials
• Anything Not Essential is Dead Weight
• Extraneous Missions mean Mission Creep, Greater
  Complexity and More Risk
• Measurable Tasks in Military Terms
• Often Not Measurable in Non-aggregated Form
• Civil vs. Military Measures (order through or
  without force)
• Authority to Critique/Qualify
• Team Players in a Military Sense
• Antipathy between military and non-military
  entities
• Difference in sensitivity to political agendas

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Training Challenges

• Limited Time
• Personnel Availability
• Mission Urgency
• Limited Training Facilities
• Some situations can have no facilities
• No one has all that are required
• Limited Assets
• Available resources do not match mission
  requirements
• Funding increases are problematical despite
  trends and policy

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Training Challenges (continued)

• Lack of Standards at All Levels
• Different Criteria Define Mission Success
• OOTW success often determined by what does not
  happen
• Affects Training (e.g., Modeling and Simulation)
  since criteria are part of the applications
  algorithms. Hence many MS not suitable.
• Different authorities assume they determine
  success.
• Cannot be ignored perceptions are realities
  problem

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Training Challenges (continued)

• Geographical Separation
• Most effective organizations are not located near
  likely sites. In addition to delaying response,
  separation dulls awareness of developments.
• Cooperation and geographical separation worsened
  by
• The international aspects of teams,
• Many US military assets in Reserve or National
  Guard formations,
• Objections of civilian, commercial organizations
  to using government elements in places and ways
  that deny commercial opportunity.

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Training Challenges (continued)

• Over-taxed/over-extended key teams and team
  members
• Primary tasks still remain
• Key members used repetitively
• Removal of key elements cripples unit
• Certain regions will be more committed than
  others
• Regions most likely to incur OOTW also are likely
  to generate classic military emergency and
  are those where fewest assets are available
• Training Must Be Done at Multiple Levels
• Vast spectrum individual through thousands
• Large differences in geographical scope of
  probable areas
• Large differences in infrastructure/conditions of
  probable areas

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Training Challenges (continued)

• Over-taxed/over-extended key teams and team
  members
• Primary tasks still remain
• Key members used repetitively
• Removal of key elements cripples unit
• Certain regions will be more committed than
  others
• Regions most likely to incur OOTW also are likely
  to generate classic military emergency and
  are those where fewest assets are available
• Training Must Be Done at Multiple Levels
• Vast spectrum individual through thousands
• Large differences in geographical scope of
  probable areas
• Large differences in infrastructure/conditions of
  probable areas

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Current Status of OOTW MS Tools

• Situation has not been ignored
• However, problems with OOTW-related MS tools
  exist
• MS Tools neither accepted as necessary or
  believed correctly focused because
• Tools seem reactive vice proactive
• Tools do not seem focused on operational
  requirements
• Most tools too slow in responding to real world
  requirements
• SME/bright staff officers more useful seen as
  faster/better/more responsive
• Tools that exist are not known by or available to
  key staff members
• Operators want information, not analysis many
  unaware of MS capabilities
• Requisite data bases do not exist or take too
  long to generate
• No evidence that an operation failed because
  absence of a MS tool
• Much of this criticism is valid

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Relationship Between OOTWs Complex Environments
and Available Computer-based Tools

• Complex emergencies tend to adapt toward
  stability.
• Seems to preclude need for some MS tools and
  makes others appear invalid
• Generic structural problems
• Logic Discontinuity Linear logic principles
  often used where paradigm seems more like chaos
  theory. Since everything hinges on the
  assumptions, beginning with a logic mismatch is
  critical.
• Mutually Evolving Factors - Complex situations,
  inherently composed of a large number of parts,
  continually evolve. This non-linear quality of
  interaction often leads to global properties
  strikingly different from the properties of the
  individual parts. Moreover, the global result
  cannot be predicted from prior knowledge of the
  parts themselves.
• Learned Behavior Those involved in complex
  emergencies respond to their environments in a
  self-teaching, self-adjusting manner. But, since
  there are no metrics for such learning, there is
  no ability to set algorithms to perform this
  function.

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Some Effects on Training with MS

• Training Format Often a Task-Condition-Standard
  Construct
• Presupposes knowledge of all three
• Linear logic construct
• OOTW/Complex Emergencies Constantly in Flux
• Detailed pre-event knowledge improbable
• Non-linear logic reality
• Unfamiliar training environment
• Militarys Solution
• Staff officers who, as components of complex
  systems, accomplish the learning function and
  adapt and evolve to meet conditions.
• Given sufficient institutional experience,
  training programs will emerge.
• Consequently Senior staff members often
  believe
• Need for OOTW MS Applications limited to
  time-consuming functions
• MS Applications are Flawed cannot respond to
  realities of situation because of construction,
  unable to predict (either define or measure)
• MS Applications Inadequate do not meet
  operational time constraints

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Progress in MS Training Applications

• Conflict Resolution Well Developed
• Logistics Functions, RD, Acquisition Making
  Rapid Progress
• Some Developments Show Considerable Promise
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Chaos Theory
• Fuzzy Logic
• Boolean Algebra
• Neural Networks
• Baysian Analysis
• However
• Few actual applications for training in
  OOTW/complex emergencies
• Most MS applications largely unknown in
  operational community
• Human-in-the-loop remains critical (reinforcing
  militarys perceptions)

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Sample MS Applications Used inTraining for
OOTW/Complex Emergencies

• Deployable Exercise System (DEXES)
• SPECTRUM
• Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation (JCATS)
• Situational Influence Assessment Module (SIAM)
• Synthetic Environments for National Security
  Estimates (SENSE)
• Contingency Analysis Planning System (CAPS)
• Virtual Information Center (VIC)
• Argonne National Laboratorys OOTW Management
  Simulator (currently under development)

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The OOTW/Complex Emergency Training Problem
Remains

• Currently
• Ability of services (and many others) to train
  collectively and concurrently approaches
  practical impossibility.
• Greater stress on computer-aided training at all
  levels
• Training Must be
• Exportable,
• Affordable,
• Coherent,
• Effective.

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Distance Learning a Possible Solution

• Currently, the only way high quality, coherent,
  and consistent training, capable of meeting the
  OOTW challenge, can be conducted is through
  distance learning
• Must be conducted within a federated framework of
  HLA compliant, distributed simulations
• Can be packaged and used from CDs, interactive
  instruction in a virtual environment, or through
  exercises in which MS applications create and
  manage a scenario with which the various team
  members interact

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Applications at Several Levels

• Individual Training Historical strong point of
  military training system. But, OOTW peculiar
  subjects currently not a significant portion.
  Effectiveness probably requires combination of
  training modalities.
• Small Team Training Military does fairly well at
  small team training. Majority of military OOTW
  tasks included in team training. However, since
  in actual operation most teams are composed of US
  military, foreign, and civilian personnel,
  challenges are created, e.g., language
  difficulties. Nor can they be readily resolved on
  scene. However, distance learning, via CDs,
  interactive use of computer-aided simulation, and
  video conferencing, can help greatly. Further,
  the increasing pervasiveness of computer
  technology and knowledge may reduce bureaucratic
  impedance.

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Applications at Several Levels (continued)

• Large Team and Staff Training The requirements
  are staggering. There are vast spectrums of
  tasks, conditions, standards, and personnel
  indeterminate periods adverse impact on budgets
  and other training absence of single authority
  dissimilar agendas and geographical separation.,
  All are significant challenges. Team members
  already obligated to primary job, they cannot
  go to the training, the training must go to
  them.

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Conclusion

• OOTW and Complex Emergencies are inescapable
  challenges to proper execution are daunting
• Success depends upon quality of training and
  planning.
• Great need for training standards, scalar
  training, a vetting process, and adequate budget.
  
• Distance learning/Distributed Training not
  substitutes, but unifying complements to a
  multi-modality training program.
• Distance learning/distributed training conducted
  within a federated framework of HLA compliant,
  distributed simulations can assist even if it
  cannot solve all the problems.
• Right now, distance learning/distributed training
  is the only way that quality training for
  OOTW/Complex Emergencies can be done.