Development of a comprehensive logistics and warfighting simulation system.

An efficient logistics system is critical to the success of military operations. Recently, the Department of Defense (DoD) has begun to move from a ''just in case'' logistics system that relies on large stores of inventoried materials toward a ''just in time'' system based on obtaining and delivering supplies when and where they are needed. For this new logistics concept to operate smoothly and responsively and be highly robust, one must understand the interrelationships between warfighting and logistics, such as the impact of losses of logistics links/nodes and the changing pace of warfighting operations. Two DoD programs, the Distributed Intelligent Agents for Logistics (DIAL) and the Warfighting Logistics Technology and Assessment Environment (WLTAE), are focusing on different aspects of this problem. These programs are being integrated to develop a Comprehensive Logistics and Warfighting System (CLAWS) that can be used to address a variety of different logistics applications in the military arena. In this paper, we describe how CLAWS will be developed, including the development of a generalized Federation Object Model that could be used in a variety of logistics and military operations applications