New Effects-Based Operations Models in War Games

For more than a dozen years most components of the Department of Defense (DoD) have been exploring the means for incorporating effects based thinking into their planning, execution, and assessment activities of the command and control process. Over the same period of time effects based tools that support the development of analytical models relating actions to effects have been developed by the research and development (R&D) community. Researchers from George Mason University (GMU) have used these tools in several war games and have evolved new modeling techniques and uses for these tools. This paper describes how the models were developed and used in these war games. Furthermore, it suggests how the modeling techniques could be better incorporated into the effects-based operations (EBO) planning and execution processes in the future. The authors believe that the lessons learned from the war gaming experience can provide guidance to the further development of tools to support effects based operations, the procedures for incorporating these effects-based concepts into the command and control processes, and provide examples to support the education of the forces in effects based thinking.