On the evaluation of military simulations: towards a taxonomy of assessment criteria

Abstract

In the area of military simulations, a multitude of different approaches is available. "Close Combat Tactical Trainer", "Joint Tactical Combat Training System", "Battle Force Tactical Training" or "Warfighter's Simulation 2000" are just some examples within the history of the large DoD Development Program in Modelling and Simulation, representing just a small piece of the variety of diverse solutions. Very often, individual simulators are very unique and so it is often difficult to classify military simulations even for experienced users. This circumstance is further boosted due to the fact that in the field of military simulations -unlike in other areas -no general classification for military simulations exists. To address this shortcoming, this publication is dedicated to the idea of providing a first contribution to the development of a commonly accepted taxonomy in the area of military simulations.To this end, the problem field is structured into three main categories (general functional requirements for simulators, special military requirements for simulators and non-functional requirements for simulators). Based upon that, individual categories are provided with appropriate classes. For a better understanding, the taxonomy is also applied to a concrete example (NetLogo Rebellion).