Littoral Warfare Simulation Experiment

Proceedings of the 1996 Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium: Command and Control in the Information AgeFast Patrol Boats (FPBs) were considered a negligible threat when the U.S. Navy focused on blue water operations far from shore. They may pose a much greater threat now that the Navy's focus is in the littoral. Moreover, the threat may be greatly enhanced if the FPBs are able to employ Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) which might help solve this increasing FPB threat. A two-cubed factorial experiment was conducted to collect data on ten performance measures (PMs) for each of the 128 trials. Significant Command equipment efforts. This paper presents the design and results of a wargaming experiment conducted at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to examine this issue. The research question is how U.S. Navy Surface Action Groups (SAGs) operating in littoral waters would perform against FPBs equipped with COTS C2 equipment which would permit them to conduct coordinated saturation attacks. The experiment also looked at two other factors: SAG workload, which might exacerbate the effects of the FPB's C2; and the quality of intelligence our SAGs are provided which might help solve this increasing FPB threat. A two-cubed factorial experiment was conducted to collect data on ten performance measures (PMs) for each of the 128 trials. Significant results were obtained for each of the three factors and for each of the three interatcions over a broad range of PMs. These results are explained in operational terms