By Ann Roosevelt
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.–U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is preparing for a seminar wargame at the end of the month that will examine how the joint force copes with potential future problems and solutions as set out in two recent documents: the Joint Operating Environment (JOE) and the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO).
“We’ll take the future joint force and have it conduct operations using the CCJO in a future environment that reflects the JOE, ” Rear Adm. Dan Davenport, director of J9 Joint Concept Development & Experiment, said at Joint Warfighting 09, co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute. “We want to see if the concept works, if the applications are adequate, and second, how does the joint force do in the future environment.”
The key is to get the right people together with the right backgrounds to challenge the concept, he said.
The wargame will take place May 31-June 5 in McLean, Va., with a final report coming in early summer.
The war game is to further develop the CCJO in support of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. JFCOM developed the JOE, setting out potential problems for the future.
It is now developing that CCJO vision in support of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and working to get the document’s ideas institutionalized in military thinking, incorporated in professional military education, on the joint and service side in documents and training, Davenport said.
Events such as the conference here, where the CCJO ideas are discussed, help spur the debate. The concepts then are tested during the war game.
J9 spent a lot of effort in developing a Red Team for the war game, in which freethinking will help challenge the assumptions of the CCJO concepts and challenge Blue, or friendly, team solutions.
The timeframe for the wargame is 2020, about midway through the period the CCJO considers.
“It’s important to note that the specific scenarios are really less important than the challenges they represent,” Davenport said. “The collective challenge they bring forth will help us evaluate the CCJO and the joint force ability to be versatile and adaptable to challenges.”
The three scenarios involve a state competitor, a fragile state and a globally networked non-state actor.
Among areas of importance for examination will be the “battle of the narrative,” with wargame participants working on strategic engagement with various audiences, to include those at home, the enemy and the rest of the world.
The scenarios give a context to play out and work through the process of thinking, planning, executing and evaluating an operation.
Importantly, the war game will inform the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) now under way, providing some insights and perhaps recommendations on how to institute balance across the joint force, Davenport said. Thus, the war game may also influence force design and development.
The QDR is on a tight timeline and J9 is already sharing information and insights as the war game is developed.
The military is only one instrument of national power, he said, as the joint force will be reliant on multinational partners and interagency and governmental personnel for successful operations.
All interagency and multinational partners have been invited to participate in the wargame as have other government partners to ensure their contributions and perspective is incorporated in the game. However, no non-governmental entities will be part of the game.