Abstract
A distributed simulation being developed by the U.S. Army using online gaming technology was evaluated during a Battalion staff exercise. The staff worked through a pre-deployment Stability and Support Operation (SASO) exercise to a hypothetical Middle-Eastern country, in which they acquired information about the local situation relevant to their assigned mission, then developed deployment and contingency plans for that mission. These plans were then evaluated by the Battalion Commander, and the staff was evaluated on their performance. Questionnaire information was collected from the staff about the effectiveness of the simulation, and interviews with the command staff and the commander provided opinion-based evidence of the value of the simulation system and simulated exercises of this kind. The results indicate considerable potential for systems of this nature to expand training and evaluation opportunities as well as meet new asymmetric training needs while optimizing Soldiers' training time.
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