Command and Control Warfare Simulator Planning - Tool Experiment 1
Publish date: 2010-12-27
Report number: FOI-R--3054--SE
Pages: 31
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- LKS
- GOP
- COPD
- Planning tool.
Abstract
In the transfer project LKS planning tool in which this work was made, a demonstrator is presented that could be used as planning support in an operative staff (J3 INSS Info Ops-section). Here the demonstrator shows effects of electronic warfare and CNO on the ability to lead in planned scenarios. Work is being done iteratively in an incremental method and the experiment described in this report is an important part in the process. This report summarizes experiences and comments from the experiment. This experiment contains GOP step 3, which was not optimal and therefore should focus on step 4 in GOP. Based on a completed CONOPS, the staff should plan several alternative information operations. These can then be used in a wargame against a red/green side prepared by the game master. It is also desired to have a GOP/COPD support for the staff to easily be able to work with the modified version of the GOP/COPD-process developed in the project. According to GOP/COPD the synchronization matrix is used to create an overview of the activities in relation to the resources in an operation, and to give a view of their relation in time. To describe the different tasks to solve an objective a Gantt-schema was used in the experiment. It shows the progression of the operation and dependencies between phases. The Gantt-diagram was considered good, but too slow to handle if the same person who is doing the planning is also filling out the diagram, since it is easy to get stuck in the technicalities of the program. An advantage to use this type of tool is that resources are assigned to the tasks and, hence can view the resource allocation in a resource diagram. In this resource diagram a target list for the opponents resources that we want to affect. These targets are also assigned to the tasks in the Gantt-schema. In this way the tool can combine the different matrices and lists in GOP/COPD. In the planning phase a set of surface coverage diagrams for radar, electro optics and communication were available in the planning tool. The experiment user was very positive towards the diagrams and considered them very usable. Wargames in LKS can be useful for the planning. When creating and choosing COA the available time for playing a full wargame can be limited, why they are rarely carried out. With the limited time available LKS is suitable for these wargames. The experiment user considered LKS as a suitable tool to investigate and test the more detailed plans and action alternatives of information operations created in GOP step 4. To develop a more user friendly interface a method called Rapid Prototyping has been used. The idea behind it is to get a quick design and that the design should have developed through a number of iterations before implementation. The advantage with this method is that it is less time-consuming, that it invites the user to review the design with a critical mindset, and that it is easy to test. During the experiment a test of the paper prototype was made. Based on the comment, we have identified a need to more clearly describe the role of the user and the phase of the planning process.