Conflict: Operational Realism versus Analytical Rigor in Defense Modeling and Simulation

This research seeks to identify sources of conflict between operational realism requirements and analytical rigor requirements in defense Modeling and Simulation MS efforts, and to provide recommendations which help alleviate identified conflicts. This research focuses on methods that can be used to improve the development and implementation of operator in the loop OITL virtual environments intended for use in acquisition decision making or the evaluation of operational plans. It is believed that the reduction of conflict between operators and analysts will lead to a better use of scarce MS resources and produce better analytic results from MS studies used as a basis for defense acquisition decision making. A real-world defense acquisition MS case study is provided as an illustrative example from which recommendations and lessons learned are derived.