Over the last ten years, the Department of Defense (DoD) and other Government agencies have invested significant resources in the development and exploitation of simulation technologies. This issue of The EDGE highlights key programs where MITRE is leveraging simulation technology for training, operational decision support, and acquisition.

The uses of simulation in the acquisition process continue to grow. MITRE and our sponsors are using simulation to evaluate emerging technologies and to analyze future tactics, doctrine, and concepts of operation. Virtual simulations that place the user in the loop support sub-system technology assessments as exemplified in the article, "Don't Shoot! I'm Your Friend."

For the Air Force, MITRE is using simulation to investigate more complex system-of-systems issues such as those discussed in the article, "Applying Advanced Simulation Technologies to the Expeditionary Force Experiment."

From an operational perspective, the increasing presence of the computer on the battlefield as an integral part of Command and Control presents new challenges to the training of commanders and their battle staff. "Simulation Trains Commanders" describes how MITRE is supporting the Army in the use of simulation to create realistic synthetic environments to stimulate the Army Battle Command System with data that is representative of real world situations. This is a critical requirement to ensure that our leaders are properly trained to exploit the information superiority that command and control systems are being designed to provide in the future.

"Parallel Simulation for Worldwide Air Traffic Control," discusses MITRE's use of parallel simulation technologies to develop a real-time operational decision support tool for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA's use of simulation to support real-time decision making parallels the DOD's vision for the use of models and simulations to support military operations.

"SEDRIS-Thinking Globally, Acting Globally," overviews the DoD's success in developing a DoD-wide capability for environmental information exchange in the simulation community, and "Modeling of Realistic Communications for Army Simulations" shows how MITRE has developed state-of-the-art representations of evolving Army tactical communications systems to evaluate complex issues such as the impact of jamming in the Global Positioning System on military operations.

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For more information, please contact guest editor Howard Carpenter using the employee directory.

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