CHALLENGE
As U.S. armed forces prepare for future conflicts, they must anticipate what weapons systems will be most useful, and determine how combat personnel can be provided with the skills and decision-making capabilities they will need to ensure mission success. These challenges are particularly pronounced in assessing the demands of Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT), an extremely complex environment that is likely to become increasingly important in the post-9/11 world. Relatively little data is available to reliably predict how 21st century warfighters will perform in MOUT situations, and therefore it is more difficult to select which potential weapons systems should be given highest priority, or how training programs should be adapted to meet future needs.
SOLUTION
As a member of the Army's Human Science/Modeling & Analysis Data (HSMAD) Team, Battelle is helping to anticipate the demands of MOUT and close combat environments in support of the Objective Force Warrior (OFW) and Future Combat System (FCS) programs. As a precursor to the development of computer simulation models, Battelle collected and analyzed extensive data from exercises conducted at the McKenna MOUT Training Facility in Fort Benning, GA. Using video cameras, night vision capabilities, laser sensors, radio monitors and other observation tools, the HSMAD Team developed a comprehensive record of every action taken and every shot fired during a series of MOUT combat simulations. Then, all participants were interviewed to determine what tactical decisions they made, and what criteria they used in making them. Ultimately, the Battelle team developed a detailed, comprehensive picture of how participants reacted to the physical terrain, each other, and their opponents.
BENEFITS
Battelle is configuring the decision-making data and physical movement patterns it observed during the exercises into formats that modelers will use to develop realistic behavior in soldiers depicted in computer simulations. By creating an accurate behavioral baseline, the data Battelle gathered will enable the development of simulations in which the value of a new weapons system can be assessed under very realistic circumstances. Similarly, tactical doctrines and training procedures can be refined in light of knowledge created by the MOUT simulations.