There have been multiple calls to increase the use of wargaming across the Navy, whether in wardrooms, for future planning, and even as part of civilian staff training. Wargaming is becoming increasingly important for junior officers as well, for instance to train for complex disaster scenarios in the Coast Guard. The Marine Corps University, Naval War College, and Naval Postgraduate School all have made wargaming a part of their professional education curriculums.
Wargaming has long been a crucial tool for military strategists to simulate and evaluate scenarios in a controlled environment. Given its importance as a tool for professional military education, it is worth considering the benefits of officers participating in wargaming earlier in their careers—perhaps even at the precommissioning stage—and how wargames can be best designed for their professional development. The U.S. Naval Academy in the last four years has made great strides in this regard.
Applying Knowledge
Wargaming at the precommissioning level (e.g. USNA and ROTC) presents unique challenges. First, most of these participants do not have warfighting experience, whether in the fleet or even in a training environment. They may have little understanding of the capabilities and limitations of different assets or the general implications of strategy. Since learning to play the game should not overshadow the learning objectives of the training event, this limits the complexity of the games that can be conducted. On the other hand, lack of experience leads to some creative gameplay. When a gamer does not know the “right” way to fight, he or she is more willing to explore new options and take risks. This leads to one of wargaming’s most important benefits: being able to learn from one’s mistakes before they are made on the battlefield.
Wargames create a dynamic environment where a student can apply the knowledge he or she is learning. One of the main criticisms of the current training methodology for ascending naval officers is that it emphasizes memorization of seemingly random independent facts, such as: “Do I know the range of an SM2?” or “What capability does an E2D provide to the Carrier Strike Group?” Warfighters need to intuit how such disparate facts relate to each other, as well as their uses in warfighting.
Wargaming in a precommissioning environment allows participants to bring those facts together and build a fuller understanding of the forces they will soon join. In this context, wargaming is more than an analytical tool used to play out and test future combat scenarios. It is also a powerful pedagogical instrument to equip future officers with commanding knowledge of the battlescape. Wargaming should be introduced early and often to future officers. As they progress in their careers and their fleet experience grows, they will build a culture around wargaming that benefits the whole force.
Analog & Digital Possibilities
The major challenges to instilling a culture of wargaming are participants’ time availability and the need to build a cadre of excellent game moderators. Games must be correctly modeled to emulate today’s potential battlespaces. Their complexity must also be finely calibrated. Made too simple, a game loses relevance. Made too complex, a game is hard to schedule, takes too long, and participants lose focus. Teaching and running these games is no easy task; a skilled expert must concisely explain the rules, convey the practical relevance, and adjudicate the game. These experts must be developed and trained.
Ideally a wargaming program will use both digital and analog (tabletop) games. Analog play has distinct advantages. First, tabletop games allow for larger groups of players, which reinforces team decision-making. They also allow instructors to react more fluidly during the game to cover specific learning objectives. For instance, generating alternative scenarios based on live play is near-impossible in a digital format. Finally, analog games can be cheaper and more adaptable.
One of the more popular wargames for professional training is the Marine Corps University’s operational wargaming system (OWS). The game provides an excellent representation of Navy and Marine Corps systems that is perfect for professional development and discussions. It also has prebuilt orders of battle and scenarios. The adjudication of engagements in OWS emulates the same patterns, rhythm, and decisions of real combat. Participants therefore get to experience these processes and patterns before even reaching the fleet. Further, its rule set is easy to adapt while still meeting learning objectives. Finally, its large library of predeveloped material makes integration with precommissioning curriculum materials even easier. This also enables moderators of all backgrounds and different fleet experiences to run a wider variety of scenarios that still accomplish learning objectives.
The Work Is Just Beginning
Over the past four years, the Naval Academy has made a major effort to instill a culture of wargaming among midshipmen. As those familiar with the life of a midshipman know, finding spare time is next to impossible, and that constraint has led to extended wargaming sessions being integrated into training on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
These training sessions involve a company of plebes (freshmen) split into red and blue teams fighting a South China Sea scenario using a modified OWS ruleset. Fleets are adjusted to fit the Professional Knowledge topic of the week but generally consist of a CAG and a SAG for each side. After the teams generate an operational movement plan, the moderator guides them through the combat phase. Adjudication is accomplished through dice rolls, and the explanation of what each roll represents in the real world provides a framework for discussion about systems and tactics.
(Stacy Godfrey)
The midshipmen can quickly grasp the geography and geometry of the battlespace, as well as gain an appreciation for missile employment and inventory management. In addition, they learn the importance of group organization and decision-making in operational planning. Failures and mistakes become important teaching tools. For example, one team recently learned the importance of integrated air defense when their unattended carrier was sunk early in the game. An additional benefit of these scenarios is that officer candidates can begin to see the impact of their future warfare communities, and midshipmen have more-informed preferences for their service selection.
The capstone for the plebe training program is the Sea Trials wargaming event. The inaugural event, held in May 2024, featured 30 concurrent games of OWS, with the entire class of 2027 participating. Each company in the brigade fielded both red and blue teams to play scored games against another company. The midshipmen were graded on their ability to accomplish in-game objectives as well as being able to demonstrate an understanding of relevant Professional Knowledge topics. Games were facilitated by an upper-class midshipman acting as adjudicator, and a faculty mentor. Midshipmen with limited fleet experience could run the scenario, and the mentor had the expertise to translate the game’s actions and outcomes into discussions of what might happen in the real world. In addition, the mentor would provide insight to the participants and grade their performance. With more than 1,100 participants—including midshipmen, officers, faculty, and outside civilian experts—this was the largest precommissioning wargaming event of its kind. These events will continue for 2025 and onward, as they have quickly become a staple of the plebe training experience.
This renewed emphasis on wargaming began in 2020, when the Naval Academy’s history department and the USNA Museum created a large dedicated space for wargaming and curated a vast library of historical wargames to enhance midshipman education. Since then, initiatives have proliferated into many other areas of the academic curriculum. The new core maritime warfare course features a wargaming segment and employs the computer-based strike-warfare simulator Command Professional Edition to visualize modern combat systems and engagements. Civilian faculty developed nearly a dozen wargaming modules over the curriculum across many disciplines. Midshipmen have worked with the Center for Naval Analyses to make computer versions of their games, developed economic and historical wargames, and play-tested games that simulated drug interdiction in South America.
The work does not stop there. As with any educational endeavor, success depends upon passing on knowledge and experience. The efforts of the past four years have developed a community and culture of wargaming. Midshipmen now lead wargames and train the next generation of facilitators. Indeed, they have hosted wargaming events with DoD civilians and have started planning events with ROTC units. Upon graduation, these midshipmen will be able to bring their skills to wardrooms across the fleet, building a junior officer cadre that is primed to excel in further wargaming education at postgraduate institutions.
Wargaming at the precommissioning level is a necessary component for the naval education enterprise. Recently, senior leadership at USNA has reaffirmed their support and priority for wargaming at the precommissioning level. We are just getting started.
