More efficient mission planning - increased utility throught gaming and war gaming

Games and war games bring together several different competencies in order for them, in cooperation, to high-light and analyse a problem. When it comes to mission planning, war games are useful to, among other things, visualise the flow of events in relation to time and space, create a common understanding of what is supposed to be achieved with the plan, and how the plan is supposed to be enacted by those involved. Games should therefore be useable as a tool for developing new ideas, evaluations, and to test, control and further develop plans that have been made to later, during execution, be able to follow up on plans and decisions. During the execution of a plan, quick follow-up games can also be used to evaluate the progression of the plan and its continued sustainability, as well as support the identification of additional measures that need to be taken. After studying military doctrine regarding mission planning, it is the opinion of the authors that the scope of using games and war games in mission planning ought to be broadened. Furthermore, when it comes to mission planning, there are a number of practical issues at military staffs to be addressed, sush as lack of time and relevant information, and sometimes a lack of gaming experience. Set against the above, the authors describe the utility of using games and war games, and propose when and why one shall use games in mission planning. Furthermore, a number of criteria for creating successful and fruitful games are presented. In addition to this, the authors propose that small, simple, and transparent computer-based models should be used to support mission planning with adjudication for different situations, rather can larger and more complex ones.