Agility in Networked Military Systems: A Simulation Experiment Topics: C2 Analysis, C2 Modeling and Simulation, Network-Centric Metrics

This paper describes some extensions to our CAVALIER agent-based simulation system, a tool for studying the performance of networked military organisations. Specifically, we have improved event handling and added neural-network-based learning. The CAVALIER tool is intended for collaborative workshops in the style of Project Albert. To demonstrate this use, the paper describes in detail an experiment studying networking and agility. We also include a comparison with the MANA simulation tool from New Zealand. Our experiment illustrates several principles of networked operation, listed at the end of the paper: first, that agents require either early awareness of upcoming threats, or the ability to respond rapidly; second, that there is little benefit in networking if agents already have enough information, or if they do not have any information worth sharing; and third, that high-quality information creates a situation where motion causes risk, yet if this breeds risk averseness, overall mission success may suffer.