An Agent-Based Combat Simulation Framework in Support of Effect-Based and Net-Centric Evaluation

Date of Award

Fall 2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering

Program/Concentration

Modeling and Simulation

Committee Director

Andreas Tolk

Committee Member

Michael McGinnis

Committee Member

Patrick Hester

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E53 B69 2008

Abstract

The use of information technologies (IT) and information networks has proliferated in industry as a method to achieve competitive advantage. The U.S. Military and its allies, in recent years, have employed IT to improve the way they conduct operations, speed decision making, and increase the span of control of commanders. This has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way military commanders employ combat units today. These (Information Age) forces no longer have to be able to see each other or even communicate directly in order to synchronize maneuvers. Dispersion is now favored over mass, relying on the IT network to enable the massing of effects rather than the massing of forces to achieve the decisive result.

Modern military theorists are seeking to take the IT advancements a step further and harness the power of information networks to produce a competitive advantage on the battlefield just as they have done for the business community. Network Centric Operations (NCO) is the term applied to this concept but no organized structure to the theory yet exists. One problem hampering this research is the lack of a combat model that bridges the gap between the complex environment of the battlefield and the network models to be studied. Legacy simulations rely on geographically driven, attrition based models to adjudicate entity interactions and are therefore ill suited to depict modern military theory.

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of employing Agent Based Modeling (ABM) to provide command and control, focusing on the small unit tactical/operational level of combat down to the individual platform that directs the performance of basic combat tasks. The entities respond to mission type orders in order to test the concepts of NCO in a complex environment and to evaluate the potential for future development and analysis of multi-level command and control structures and capabilities enhancements.

This model shows that ABM can be employed to create small scale network centric models and observe realistic complex behaviors in a simple battlefield environment. While ABM is computationally intensive, it demonstrates the effect of environmental and effects-based constraints on system performance, it is robust enough to handle complex interactions, and it has the potential to support additional levels of complexity and more advanced control networks.

Rights

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DOI

10.25777/6qzs-2n96

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