The Use of Microworld Simulations to Train Theater-Level CSS Staffs

The Army is in essence reengineering itself under the auspices of Force XXI, and at the same time it is evolving into a "force projection Army." Such changes place increasing importance on effective combat service support (CSS) command and control (C2). These challenges and changes to CSS management will occur in an increasingly information-rich and distributed environment. Earlier aspects of this research reported on the opportunity to reexamine training for support staffs above the division level and determine how the Army might change its training to best prepare for new styles of CSS management. This documented briefing illustrates a microworld simulation modeling approach that can help to facilitate changes in structure and content for training CSS staffs operating as staffs, not for individual training. The authors discuss how microworld models can be used to train CSS processes. Included in the discussion is an overview of how these models operate and what the prototypes are intended to illustrate in a training curriculum. The briefing concludes with some general lessons learned from developing and testing these prototype models with an actual training audience, and the authors suggest how training developers may proceed to redesign mission training plans for higher-level theater CSS C2 staffs.