Automated War Gaming as a Technique for Exploring Strategic Command and Control Issues

This Note describes a preliminary concept for including strategic command and control effects within the automated war gaming of RAND's Strategy Assessment Center. The concept features a top-down functionally oriented approach relevant to the interests of civilian and military leaders; a hierarchical and otherwise multilevel gaming structure; and heuristic rule-based models using a variety of artificial intelligence techniques. The approach will be sensitive to key features of war plans and control procedures. It will make a start on reflecting such phenomena as nonunitary decisionmaking, deception, and confusion. It will take into account some of the asymmetries distinguishing the U.S. and Soviet approach to C3I. Initial versions of the implemented concept should be useful and interesting but will be relatively simple; with time, it should be possible to evolve gracefully and use some of the detailed models available on pieces of the overall C3I problems.