Essential techniques for military modeling and simulation

The article identifies and explores the essential techniques necessary for modern military training simulations. It provides a brief historical introduction followed by discussions of: system architecture; simulation interoperability; event and time management; distributed simulation; and verification, validation, and accreditation. This is followed by fundamental principles in modeling and specific military modeling domains. The growth in government sponsored simulation programs has drawn engineers and scientists from other fields. These practitioners bring valuable skills, but lack an appreciation for the historical and technical foundations of simulation. The article familiarizes readers with important areas and gives them an appreciation for the complexity of developing large simulations. We suggest that a need exists for academic and commercial courses that focus on this topic. The article may serve as a template for one such course