NATO decision-makers must prepare to react quickly, decisively, and effectively to ever more demanding challenges and events. Modeling and simulation, in combination with technologies such as data analytics and artificial intelligence, help NATO to prepare and support decision-makers and staff to manage complexity, assess risks, and evaluate options in the multifaceted security environment.
The benefits of modeling and simulation are numerous, providing risk free experimentation, education and training, exploration of alternatives, dynamic visualization of political, military, economic, social, informational, and infrastructure environments. Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is focusing modeling an simulation on overcoming lagging support for customer needs, stove piped approaches, lack of interoperability, and data exchange between national and NATO systems. Overcoming these challenges is crucial to assisted decision-making, defense planning, operations planning, mission rehearsal, education, training, exercises, wargaming, analytical studies, and lessons learned. ACT is committed to providing user applications and user-centric design and implementation using modeling and simulation. Today and in coming years ACT will ensure interoperability within the Alliance implementing a data centric approach to modeling and simulation.
Enterprise and top-down demand for modeling and simulation is increasing. ACT innovation processes are used to explore user needs. Modeling and simulation is being used to support strategic studies and concepts such as Multi-Domain Operations. ACT is also investigating implementation of the future NATO persistent parallel synthetic environment. Simulations continue to enhance NATO wargames and analysis activities.
Data analytics and artificial intelligence will augment these initiatives to support political consensus making and military decision-making at all levels. ACT is advancing two related capability programs: strategic, political, and military assisted decision-making, and next generation modeling and simulation. Through these efforts, the Alliance will continue to evolve and improve its ability to support the warfighter and maintain the strategic edge.