Title: Evaluating the impact of shared situational awareness on combat effectiveness in symmetric engagements

Authors: Mahmoud T. Khasawneh; Nevan Shearer; Ghaith Rabadi; Shannon Bowling; Raed Jaradat

Addresses: School of Engineering, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX 78041, USA ' Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA ' College of Engineering Technology, Bluefield State College, Bluefield, WV 24701, USA ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Bagley College of Engineering, Mississippi State University, MS State, MS 39762, USA

Abstract: The information age combat model (IACM) is a popular representation of network centric operations (NCO). NCO is a military doctrine championed by the USA. This paper presents the results of a discrete event simulation (DES) of the IACM. The objective is to understand the impact of shared situational awareness on combat effectiveness in symmetric engagements. Symmetric in this context means the battle engagements studied involved units having an equal number of sensors, deciders, and influencers. After model verification, the results of the linear and nonlinear regression analyses will be presented and discussed. The analyses have been carried out on the aggregated data first and then the data was disaggregated to focus on high percentage win engagements and evenly-matched engagements. The focus will be on highlighting the utility of the performance metrics defined and used in previous IACM research studies.

Keywords: network centric operations; NCO; information age combat model; IACM; shared situational awareness; discrete event simulation; DES; performance metrics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2021.117317

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2021 Vol.16 No.3, pp.199 - 211

Received: 30 Jan 2020
Accepted: 09 Feb 2021
Published online: 31 Aug 2021 *

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