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Enhancing UK Defence Wargaming Capability: Anchoring Cultural Change and Challenge with our People.

Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

Captain Eugene Morgan

Royal Navy

Directorate Joint Warfare, UK Strategic Command

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Teaser … we will come back to the relevance of this slide … all I ask of you to hold in mind for now and we’ll come back to it towards the end…..

(The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the artist’s early works, executed when apprentice in the workshop of his master Verrocchio.

the following observations/deductions drawn from the history of art, provide a bit of analytical rigour to discussion:

ANALYSIS OF THE ANNUNCIATION BY LEONARDO (extracted from the Art Post)

On the left is the arch angel Gabriel, on the right is Mary.
The scene depicted in is from the New Testament when Gabriel has just arrived in front of Mary to announce her that she would be the mother of Jesus. Notice:

His wings are still spread and he surprises Mary while she is reading.
The Virgin Mary is portrayed with a very beautiful face but with no expression, while that arm leaning against the bookstand looks a bit too long.
Looking at the scenario designed by Leonardo: the grass and plants of the lawn, are a representation of the familiar, but in the deep background the landscape seems to be built from air and light.

If you look at the painting in detail, you can notice flaws and imperfections that disappear, when you look at it as a whole.. What seem mistakes are actually Leonardo’s tricks to make the painting more poetic in order to captivate and invite the viewer to enter into a world designed for focused deliberation on the mystery of faith.

To Leonardo painting is a mental act, a way to understand reality and nature. Painted in his early twenties, here you can see his interest in nature and curiosity about phenomena of the world. (A parallel to the challenge of modern wargamers trying to understand, model and simplify complex phenomena?).

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Overarching vision

Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

Joint Warfare will develop and coordinate the enhanced wargaming capability for Defence in order to meet demand by facilitating understanding, critical thinking and evidence-based decision making.

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Art vs Science – trying to generate / educate / develop the art as much as the science

The Secretary of State and the Vice-Chief of Defence Staff want to increase our wargaming capability, capacity, and overall culture within MOD.

In an increasingly complex and uncertain world, the MOD needs to make difficult decisions to help achieve competitive advantage whilst balancing risk against strategic outcomes. Wargaming is a powerful decision support tool to enables this.

The vision is a central hub that will connect to partners in defence, academia, NATO and other allies - a number of whom are represented here today.

But crucially, this is not just about building capability and capacity, this is about building a culture.

All know the warning that culture eats strategy for breakfast, and it is within this in mind that the approach we are taking is orientated around anchoring that change and challenge within our people

I want to set out what the UK intends to do, and how we intend to do it

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Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

Interim Capability and Journey to Full Capability
Key current activities
Pan-Defence Skills initiative
Identifying skills requirements
Developing learning pathways
Workforce challenges and opportunities

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Challenges:

Wargaming does take place. However, has been fragmented across Defence leading to sub-optimal delivery in some cases
This is exacerbated by limited availability of what we call SQEP (Skills, Qualification and Experience) – i.e. experienced practitioners such as those gathered here today
This is not yet a recognized career path nor supported by a defined skillset within defence
A significant number of wargames need to be held at AS and so not just SQEP but also appropriate clearances and locations
Reflect on any relevant challenges raised by Connections US panel discussions
Ultimately, main challenge is that current and projected demand for wargaming outstrips existing provision capacity

Opportunities

Although the increasing demand is a challenge, it is also an opportunity. This growing demand is not unique to the UK and already academic institutions are increasing their offers for degrees in this sector which will provide the next generation of wargamers
We have seen increased collaboration with Allies and Partners, collectively increasing the number of participants, deliverers and designers – all of whom have an interest in serious games for planning, education, training and analysis
There are more opportunities for defence to exploit the excellent work being done by networks such as Connections and we are seeing increased interest, focus and attendance from senior stakeholders
Whilst fragmented, there are wargaming communities and eco-systems, units use commercial games to train troops, we engage in multi-site, multi-partner NATO games, there are seminar games, matrix games and the Defence Wargaming Centre run by DSTL. There is an opportunity to draw this together and a wider audience brings with it diversity of thought

Responses

How do we get at this? This is about improving the supply of evidenced and human based decision making – of which wargaming is a powerful tool
The cultural shift is going to require training and teaching our people to become increasingly aware of wargaming and how best to design, test and refine to deliver wargaming for defence and for them to become the change agents
We are building an approach orientated to people and process
We need to increase the availability of training to meet this new demand
We need to grow our own practitioners whilst also drawing upon expertise in academia or the private sector
We will also need to ensure we can build intelligent customers to ensure wargaming is used when appropriately and effectively
This is also a call to arms – many at this event are going to be instrumental in helping us deliver against this vision

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“The Hub”

Exercise

Centre

School

Allies

Dedicated “Spokes”

Ministry of

Defence

Partners Across

Government

Dstl

Wargaming

Centre

Working Relationship

Connectivity

Access

Academia

Industry

HQ

The Hub includes:

Faculty (School and Centre)

Governance

Programming (of courses and wargames)

Design and Delivery

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Governance: Wargames, from operational up to grand strategic levels, must be linked to the priorities of senior decision makers. This requires senior leader engagement with the wargaming faculty to ensure the capability evolves in line with their needs, as well as their participation in wargames and consideration of the insights and understanding generated.
Mixed Delivery Model: Not seeking a completely centralised delivery system. The hub requires wargaming practitioners and a wargame programme, in order to enhance capacity, enable classified wargaming, to maintain the faculty’s ability to understand and evolve the capability, and to enable rapid reprioritisation of work in favour of (strategic) contingency planning.
Personnel: Defence will invest in increasing the quantity of personnel adept at using (intelligent customer commissioning) and participating in wargames. Training will improve the UK’s ability to eke more from the current pool of dedicated wargaming staff whilst providing the foundations to better support succession planning.
Participants. Workforce participation needs to be competent in the representation of BLUE, RED and other factors / actors’ capabilities and viewpoints. Require players that are competent at, for example, representing the Threat.
Game designers/ facilitators. Developing the cadre of who can design and run wargames, will increase the capability to meet all of MOD’s needs.
Experiment / activity designers. As a tool for generating insights and evidence, wargaming must fit within the broader method (ie the combination of different techniques) needed to generate the desired outputs. This will require Defence to grow the proportion of staff that are comfortable with the scientific approach, who can exploit wargaming to best effect.
Commissioners/ intelligent customers. To gain the most from wargaming Defence must equip its people with the wherewithal to be intelligent customers and to commission the right activities (including the right types of wargaming), needed to enable the decision-maker to understand outputs, constraints, and assumptions, and to support informed, evidence-based decision-making.
Facilities and tools. Head Office, Commands, and selected training and education locations should have access to their own designated wargaming spaces. Linked to the wargaming Hub, they should be capable of accessing the most current relevant data and sharing outputs with the wider community. Ideally, at Full Operating Capability, some large- scale wargames could be delivered on a distributed basis, with different players able to participate from within their own MOD, Defence, PAG or allied facilities.

So what for industry? The proposed scale will increase the Defence supplier-base through training provision, commissioning wargames for external delivery, research into advanced techniques, (appropriate) sharing of data and of best practice, whilst also supporting the development of the Head Office, Commands’, and other agencies’ wargaming capability and capacity.

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June 2023

Internal MOD Wargaming capacity apportioned against competing needs.
MOD-commissioned Wargaming activities proactively scheduled and coordinated..
In-house (ie Hub-owned) Wargaming service implemented and continually improved.
Extra-mural Wargaming services from Industry and Academia sourced and quality-assured.
UK professional Wargaming competence accreditation model implemented and assured.
International wargaming collaboration with Allies/Partners/NATO promoted and managed.
Pan-MOD Wargaming applied research activities commissioned and proactively exploited.
Pan-MOD Wargaming Training Requirements Authority responsibilities discharged.
Wargaming consultancy services provided to internal clients across MOD.
At-readiness Rapid Wargaming service provided to MOD senior leadership.
Physical Wargame artefact production service provided and optimised.
Defence Synthetic Environment services engaged to support Wargaming activities.
Wargaming Knowledge Management services provided across the Defence Enterprise.
Wargaming data, tools and scenario repository accessible across the Defence Enterprise.
Defence Enterprise-wide Wargaming Community of Practice cohered and managed.
Service and Civil Service personnel Wargamer competencies tracked and updated.
Wargaming capabilities in Industry and Academia tracked and engaged.
Wargaming Lessons identified, widely shared, and exploited.
Wargaming outreach to wider gaming communities undertaken.

Key capabilities of the hub at FOC

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Campaign Plan: Interim to Permanent Capability

Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

Build on initial momentum to deliver interim capability and capacity quickly to support operational design for 2030s

Delivering additional games from Q4 2023 targeted to support Head Office Underwritten by allocated funding

Prioritisation of effort directed through a MQL.

Build from diverse people and skills through engagement, training and partnering with academia, industry, allies, and partners.

Realise the option through incremental development to give permanent capability.

Interim Programme start
Open interim facility
Showcase at DSEI
Deliver first wargames
IOC Perm Hub established
POC Hub and Spoke

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June 2023

UK Defence & Security Industry Strategy 2021

Industry, government and academia work together in strategic relationship
Bi-lateral and multi-lateral links with partners to innovate and create capability
Understand current & future skills demand for government, industry and academia
Pan-Defence Skills Framework (PDSF) flexibility working across government and industry
PDSF approach has been adopted for developing Professional Wargaming

Changing the Approach to Wargaming Training & Skills

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Published 26 Mar 2021

DSIS - Ben Wallace SoS for Defence & Jeremey Quinn Minister for Defence Procurement

Links strategically to aims of Defence Command Paper and need for sustainable and innovative defence industrial base.
Make clear UK Defence and Security Industries are viewed by government as a strategic capability in their own right

UK Defence & Security Industry Strategy 2021

Enables industry, government and academia to work closer together in closer more strategic relationship
Vision encompasses better use of bi-lateral and multi-lateral links with partners to innovate and create capability
Improve understanding of the skills base and future skills demand across government, industry and academia
The Pan-Defence Skills Framework (PDSF) introduced to aid flexibility for working across government, academia and industry
PDSF approach has been adopted for Professional Wargaming

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June 2023

1. Target Audience Analysis >

Boundary, Description, Segmentation, Functions

2. Skills Framework Development >>

Skills Areas, Skills Proficiency Levels

Knowledge + Skills + Experience + Behaviours

3. Coherence beyond Defence >>>

Across Government

Shared with Industry/Academia/Allies/Partners/NATO etc

4. Learning Interventions to match PDSF stipulations >>>>

Exploit existing

Develop new

Preliminary Learning Needs Analysis (pLNA)

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1. Target Audience – systematically identifies all personnel who are actively contribute to wargame life-cycle – the analyses all specialised wargaming learning required.

2. The skills framework is a grouping of the target audience into practitioner skills areas and creates a stream of discrete proficiency levels to track the progressive knowledge, skills, experience and behaviour elements required for generating effective wargaming at increasing levels of complexity.

Using KSEB (Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Behaviours) rather than military job analysis makes the approach a more accessible, understandable and applicable to non-military stakeholders in industry, government and academia. Thus promoting better chances to collaborate and benchmark learning needs but also to open-up a wide cross-sector range of work opportunities and experience for wargame practitioners.

The PDSF framework sets the baseline stipulations for the design of learning interventions and courses for wargamers. As the PDSF specifies the skills standards, behaviours and experience required for key wargaming roles within organisations, it may also be helpfully applied to benchmarking suitability and experience of candidates for wargame related job posts.

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June 2023

pLNA Purpose and Scope

Purpose:

To complete a high-level analysis of the learning needs of workforce functions associated with the various uses of wargaming across the UK Defence Enterprise

Scope:

pLNA will encompass the totality of the UK Defence Enterprise
Identify the levels, nature and scale of the learning interventions required to provide UK Defence with the correct number of Personnel to support current and predicted requirements for professional wargaming

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Our preliminary Learning Needs Analysis will encompass the totality of the UK Defence Enterprise (undertaken from a Whole Force perspective: military, civil servants, industry and academic partners)
The work is innovative and replaces a Training Needs Analysis approach will normally looks at military roles and jobs in context.
We will revisit the work to check and amend the preliminary findings as the project matures and requirements are better defined.
The learning analysis process identify the levels, nature and scale of the learning interventions required to provide UK Defence with the correct number of Suitably Qualified & Experienced Personnel (SQEP) to support current and predicted requirements for professional wargaming.
The skills framework allows the solution space and requirement sets to be shared and readily understood by partners outside Defence and with allies.

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June 2023

pLNA Boundaries

Wargames set at all decision-making echelons (from Grand Strategic to Tactical)
Wargaming for all types of analytical and learning purposes
All aspects of human-conducted (ie ‘Manual’) wargaming
Technology-integration aspects of wargaming conducted on a ‘blended’ (ie technology-supported) basis
Learning needs directly associated with the development of computer simulations and models for wargaming use
Non-wargaming learning needs of workforce members of any organisation established or affected by the Programme
Red Teaming/Constructive Challenge and Historical Analysis are acknowledged as adjacent disciplines

in scope

not in scope

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June 2023

Target Audience Boundary

People* working inside, or with, the UK Defence Enterprise who commission/sponsor, design, deliver, participate in, and produce or exploit the outputs of analytical and/or learning wargames

* “People” includes:

Requirement Drivers: Personnel from the UK Defence ‘Whole Force’ (ie Armed Forces Regular and Reservist personnel, MOD Civil Servants, and civilian personnel from Industry, ‘Think Tanks’ and Academia)
Requirement Shapers: Personnel of other UK Government departments and agencies working within the wider UK National Security Enterprise, and those of Allies’ and Partners’ Defence Enterprises

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June 2023

Target Audience Communities

Intelligent Customer Community

Wargame Commissioners and their staffs (who may also discharge Wargame Director or Wargame Controller Functions during wargame conduct)

Professional Wargamer Community

Personnel whose primary duty is to design, develop, test, conduct and generate outputs from wargames
Auxiliary Wargamer Community
Personnel serving in RN/RM/Army/RAF units, RM/Army formation HQs, Maritime/Land/Air/SF/Logistics/Cyber/Space component HQs, Joint operational-level HQs, and Military Strategic-level HQs who bear a specific CoA wargaming responsibility to their own commander
Personnel who participate in a wargame in the normal course of their wider duties

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June 2023

Identified Wargaming Functions

Wargame Intelligent Customer (Skill Area 7: Wargame Commissioning)
Wargame Integrator (Skill Area 9: Wargame Integration)
Wargame Designer (Skill Area 1: Wargame Design)
Wargame Scenario Developer (Skill Area 3: Wargame Scenario Development)
Wargame Analyst (Skill Area 2: Wargame Analysis)
Wargame Controller (Skill Area 8: Wargame Control)
Wargame Facilitator (Skill Area 4: Wargame Facilitation)
Wargame Adjudicator (Skill Area 5: Wargame Adjudication)
Wargame Participant (Skill Area 6: Wargame Participation)
Wargaming Capability Developer (Skill Area 10: Wargame Capability Development)

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Important to note: we are not saying these are 10 different people – multiple functions can be performed by individuals ��Flexibility vs UK/NATO systems approach to training – our starting point is not functions in military job titles and the duties/task construct. Industry, academia and other government department do not follow military job constructs and an associated stove-piped system approach to training and course development is limiting. The PDSF avoids this friction and promotes opportunities to collaborate with other industry sectors and overseas partners using skill descriptions they will recognise and understand.

Acknowledge the need for innovation to use wargaming as a delivery tool for lessons and exercises so it becomes a recognised decision tool at the early start of peoples’ careers and is not another training lesson to be delivered in already overly-congested military training pipeline. To make cultural change how do we go about it.

Wargaming is currently in use to deliver rich curriculum content for:

Phase 1 initial officer training at Sandhurst for British Army Officers,
Phase 2 professional trade skills training within the Royal Navy to teach anti-submarine warfare for helicopter aircrew.
Phase 3 professional military education for Senior Operational Commanders at Higher Command and Staff Course at the UK Defence Academy.

The ambition is to mainstream wargaming as an rich curriculum delivery tool which should be introduced to recruits at an early stage in their training/education so it becomes a familiar and well-used tool throughout career to sharpen thinking and decision-making.

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June 2023

Wargaming Skills Framework Design

The Wargame ‘Skills Framework’:

Comprises multiple functional ‘Skill Areas’,

each consisting of up to 7 progressive ‘Skill Levels’, composed of:

‘Knowledge’ + ‘Skills’ + ‘Experience’ + ‘Behaviours’

NB: Best practice in HMG is to utilize 2-4 ‘Skill Levels’

‘Proficiency’ at any ‘Skill Level’ is achieved via:

Prerequisite learning +
Proficiency at immediately lower Skill Level +
Any required additional formal learning +
Workplace mentoring/coaching +
Experiential learning (ie by doing)

…and is then confirmed by evidence of accomplishment

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June 2023

Wargaming Skills Framework Design�(Green Blocks: Show relevant progressive Skill Proficiency Levels Identified: each has an associated Knowledge/Skills/Experience/Behaviour stipulations to satisfy before progressing to the next level)

NB: Assumes neophyte (ab initio) entrants to each skills pathway, except for Skill Areas #5 & #11

Multiple functional ‘Skill Areas’,

progressive ‘Skill Levels’

‘Knowledge’ + ‘Skills’ + ‘Experience’ + ‘Behaviours’

Wargaming Skill Proficiency Level (to right): Wargaming Functional Skill Areas (below):	P1 Awareness	P2 Foundation	P3 Junior�Practitioner	P4 Practitioner	P5 Experienced Practitioner	P6 Expert
1. Wargame Commissioning*
2. Wargame Design
3. Wargame Analysis
4. Wargame Scenario Development
5. Wargame Integration				Not for ab initios; learning journey begins in Wargame Design
6. Wargame Facilitation
7. Wargame Control
8. Wargame Adjudication
9. Course of Action Wargame Delivery*				Proficiency can be authorised at unit/HQ level
10. Wargame Participation*
11. Wargame Capability Development					Profile as per P5 Level of Wargame Design or Analysis

Workplace Learning

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June 2023

Captures up to 7 skills levels from awareness to expert across 9 key wargaming practitioner and customer functions.

PDSF Structure captures required:

Knowledge (yellow)

Skills Application (green)

Experience (blue)

Behaviours (pink)

PDSF for Wargaming Capability

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June 2023

Building the PDSF for Wargaming Capability

Engagement with leading wargamers across military, industry and academic sectors.

UK, Key Allies and NATO experts all supported the discussion on the key practitioner functions needed for successful wargame design and delivery.

Approach is more agile and inclusive across all sectors and partners when compared to training needs analysis tools used for job analysis within the uniformed military sector.

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June 2023

Envisaged Set of Learning Interventions

Awareness Learning:

Defence Experimentation:

Professional Wargamers:

e-Learning

1. Policy, Strategy & Force Development

2. Wargaming in Defence Experimentation

Masterclass for senior leader Commissioners
Formal course for their staff members

1. Wargaming Fundamentals

2. Course of Action (CoA) wargame courses for Defence.

3 Initial Wargame Design, Integration & Adjudication (common foundation course).

4. Analysis

5. Facilitation & Control

6. Scenario Development

7. Advanced Design, Analysis, Integration & Adjudication Masterclasses.

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Awareness Learning Intervention:

For all who may participate in a wargame in the course of their wider duties.
Sets the scene for all players and clearly articulates the right behaviours and skill application needed during play (mitigates against GIGO risk).

Defence Experimentation for Policy, Strategy & Force Development

Ensuring those who set the requirement (and their teams) correctly frame the question and tasking to get the most appropriate decision support tool.
Wargaming is not always the best support tool in isolation (if only have a hammer, the risk is every problem can become a nail) and situating the appreciation can be dangerous and waste precious resources). Other available techniques should be considered on their relative merits.
Need for customer/commissioner to commit to regular engagement in the wargaming development life-cycle to design, delivery and land results and reap organisation benefits from the wargame insights and recommendations.

Learning Interventions for Professional Wargamers:

The key roles within our fulltime wargame teams are the design, analysis, facilitation, scenario development and integration (integration being the specialised aspects of wargame project management). We’ll start with a common foundation course and then look to develop specialist learning for those showing suitable aptitude, skills and behaviours to progress further. These learning pathways will be designed to support and develop a small cadre of full-time wargame practitioners working on multiple projects for Defence but we are keen to collaborate in the solution and delivery space, recognising many professional wargaming learning needs are common across sectors.

Course of Action (CoA) Wargaming will be designed and piloted to have a much wider impact pan-Defence and is a corner stone to the cultural change required amongst our people to adopt wargaming skills as a routine way-of-working to strengthen and inform thinking, challenge and decisions-making within and throughout our organisation.

The course will be designed as a specialist formal course target at unit/HQ staff level to ensure, across Defence units and HQs, there is at least one skilled team member who has responsibility for and is able to deliver Course of Action Wargaming at the Tactical, Operational or Military Strategic level of conflict.

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June 2023

Category
Active Duty
Full-time Reserves
Part-time Reserves
‘Spare-time’ Reserves*
Civilian Crown Servants
Industry Personnel
Academia Personnel
Think Tank / NGOs

Blended Workforce

* Could be useful to augment the workforce, but could not provide its ‘backbone’

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Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

Some Workforce Category Factors

Likely duration in post?
Future longevity in professional wargaming?
Foreseeable quality of candidates?
Volume of suitable candidates available to IC?
Liability for short-notice operational deployment?
Commitment to serve when/where required?
Overall employment cost?

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The long-term aim is to identify potential and aptitude for serious wargamers and grow new talent both within Defence and across the wider Defence Enterprise.
In the short-term, we recognise this will may need support from industry and academia, but the intention is not to 'poach' talent in a scarce market but to use make use of existing expertise, harnessing mentors to show the way while developing a sustainable learning pathway which passed on the baton to future talent.
We also want to ensure skills and expertise is recognised against a common standard to ensure wargaming talent can be employed across government, the academic community and industry in a flexible and agile manner.
The approach being taken, looks to eliminate friction and improve ways-of-working to open-up working opportunities in wargaming across the Defence Enterprise, so talent can be flexibly deployed and is open to a wide range of experiences and workplace learning.

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June 2023

Enterprise-level Considerations?

Managed career pathways and progression?
Recruitment and retention incentives?
Apprenticeship scheme for neophytes?
Professional accreditation through-career?
Communities of practice:

pan-Defence?
pan-Government?
with Industry/Academia/Think Tanks?
with Allies and Partners?
with NATO and other international organisations?

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Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

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When I showed this slide as a teaser … you’ll doubtless remember, I said we would come back to its relevance. (and note any resemblance of the angel to our friend Peter Perla, graciously receiving feedback from his publisher on the first draft of the Art of Wargaming, is entirely coincidental).

The exceptional artistic/sculptor/engineer Leonardo Da Vinci painted The Annunciation in his 20s while an apprentice to the early renaissance master painter/sculptor Verrocchio. To Leonardo painting is a mental act, a way to understand reality and nature. In Annunciation, you can already see his interest in nature and curiosity about phenomena of the world which this remarkable Renaissance man was trying to understand. (perhaps a parallel to the challenge facing wargamers trying to understand, model and simplify a complex and ever shifting world).

Thread of note is the importance of fostering the master/apprentice relationship in transferring and enhancing skills on how to best observe and replicate the natural world with sufficient fidelity to draw-in and inspire the observer. And all great skills need for the baton passed on to the next generation to take forward, adapt and develop or they will be lost.

For the advocates of historical analysis amongst you, I could dive further into art history further but as time is pressing, let me move on and make my next point: we don’t need to go back as far as Italy in the Early Renaissance (15^th century) to see inspiring examples of great mentor/apprenticeships creating creative skill and talent in surprising ways. For a more contemporary example consider … Prince….(next slide)

History of art analysis relevant to this remarkable image are captured in the notes to slide 2 and there are some very interesting parallels to be drawn on immersive wargame design principles (as well as the mentor/master relationship) that was on-going when the image was originally painted back in the 15^th century.

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Key takeaways

Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

This about cultural change
Industry and academia has a big part to play
Innovative ways to work with allies and partners
Wargaming relevance is increasing
Diversity is essential - cultural and cognitive
Part of a wider eco-system

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Cultural shift - Innovation and experimentation and anchoring this in people. Not about buildings or facilities, although these will form part of the solution
Continued engagement with industry required – help with critical thinking and better decision making and decades’ worth of experience to draw upon – as is evidenced by the experience in this room – this is particularly relevant to staff our interim capability as we grow the next generation of wargamers
Work with Allies and Partners – on similar journeys – share lessons learned and exchange knowledge . Skills framework approach makes sharing easier as you can work at lower classification levels than would apply with traditional military job analysis approaches.
Relevance – even in this age of high tech and AI – manual wargaming remains a powerful tool
Diversity – encouraging diversity of thought in particular – encourage critical thinking and challenge
Part of a wider eco-system – this is not happening insolation (DSTL, Wargaming here in US) but also wider in defence as wargaming is just one tool to drive experimentation and innovation - Collect, analyse, evidence based decision making still valued

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Questions?

Optimising the Joint Force

Joint Warfare's purpose is to enable the current Joint Force to operate, integrate, innovate, develop and adapt

June 2023

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