The Wargaming mission.(Air Force Logistics Management Agency)

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Introduction

When I was asked to write an article about what the division accomplished last year the first task was to identify someone who was here. Just as with other Air Force units who are wrestling with the logistics readiness officer (LRO) manning dilemma, AFLMA is striving to make sure we effectively complete our mission. This fear, I chose to look at the evolution of wargames at AFLMA in the face of high deployment rates and ever-expanding expertise and specialization in wargame execution, and more importantly, what we've done to turn challenges into opportunities and how we develop wargame professionals.

Wargames

AFLMA has supported wargames for over a decade. Our role then is the same as it is now--infuse logistics truth into the scenarios and evaluate proposed logistics concepts in diverse scenarios, looking at capabilities of today and the future. A constant in today's Air Force is change in order to stay relevant. As a result, AFLMA established a separate Wargames Division in response to the expansion of agile combat support (ACS) requirements within exercises, wargames, and experiments (EXWAREX); a significant increase in preparation requirements; and a significant increase in planning and analysis man hours required to develop many of the concepts. Faced with continuous turnover and high deployment rates, this proved an excellent decision, maximizing the manpower available. To meet the challenge, an accelerated training program was needed to build an effective wargamer in only 4 to 6 months. In response, AFLMA created a roadmap to accomplish this task, authored the "Wargames Primer," and developed the requisite training plan.

Successful execution of EXWAREX typically occurs in three phases, pregame design, game execution, and postgame analysis.

Pregame Design. This is where baseline research, definition, and development of ACS objectives that represent the heart of current AF/A4 issues occur. A typical event requires several thousand hours of preparation ranging from definition and phasing of futuristic force modules to assembly of specialized modeling and simulation tools to analyze specific events. Detailed study of emerging topics, such as alternative fuels, is required to develop the background expertise needed to build the scenario fuel situation, game objectives, and determine how we will employ the objective to effect the overall scenario.