Military Operations Research Society (MORS)
The Military Operations Research Society (MORS) is a mission-critical non-profit organization that educates, supports, and connects data analysts and operations researchers from the military, government, industry and academia to enhance the quality of analysis that informs national and homeland security decisions.
Upcoming Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Events
Join us for the next MORS-Talk as Mr. Christopher Huffman, Aerospace Engineer at DCS Corporation, joins us to present Difficulties in Modeling and Analyzing Missile Engagements.
Analysis of missile engagements is challenging due to the significantly coupled nature of the problem. Sensing, decision making, intercept prediction, guidance laws and algorithms, and simulation-environment fidelity all contribute to the success or failure of a particular engagement. Modeling these factors to provide timely answers to analytic questions requires consideration of the level of fidelity required and development and testing techniques to provide confidence in the use case, promote reusability, and conduct continuous improvement.
Chris Huffman is an aerospace engineer for DCS Corporation specializing in missile model development. He also has experience using optimization techniques for model and system development and testing. He has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Chris has been a member of MORS since 2021 and has been a co-chair, chair, and advisor for the Air Warfare working group.
Overview
The MORS Certificate in Wargaming is a five-day course designed to enhance analyst capability and knowledge in multiple aspects of professional games, including research, design, development, execution, analysis, and reporting. Through a combination of lectures and exercises, participants will learn the theory behind wargames before diving into research design and execution. Building on Peter Perla’s theory of the “Architect, Artist, and Analyst” model for game designers, the course includes material that covers each style of wargame design. The course culminates in a practicum where participants will be divided into teams to develop and execute their own game for an assigned analytical problem.
MORS has partnered with Virginia Tech to offer this certificate. Participants will receive a number Continuing Education Units (CEUs) upon completion, in accordance with the number of contact hours determined by Virginia Tech.
Objectives:
Our expert instructors will guide participants through the key aspects of wargaming and aid them in creating their own game on the final day of the course. Along the way, participants will learn about the following:
- Defining a wargame
- A brief history of wargames
- Building blocks of game design
- Adjudication
- Strategic gaming
- Wargame graphics
- Game analysis
Overview
The MORS Designing Tactical Games Course is a three-day course that focuses on building tactical games. Tactical games deal with maneuver and combat during individual battles. This requires the game designer to manage large numbers of complex variables in ways that allow the players to make the appropriate Warfighting decisions. Whether this is done using computer or manual techniques, it demands no small degree of simulation—the interaction of forces, the effects of human factors and technology, and the effects of the environment on combat. Any good wargame strives to produce realistic adjudications and outcomes, but the realism of tactical games is tested even more stringently because the players can more easily relate game mechanics and adjudication to their own personal experiences. All of this makes designing tactical games different—and even more challenging—than designing operational or strategic games. This class will examine some of these challenges and possible solutions in both theoretical and practical terms.
Objectives:
Our expert instructors will address tactical games according to the different combat domains: ground, naval, and air. Participants will learn varying aspects of game design and explore future challenges from these perspectives, including but not limited to:
- Designing exploratory games—that is, games to create or test new tactics, weapon systems, or operational concepts
- Ground games:
- How good design must address basic concepts such as mission, time, space, forces, and command relationships
- How to bring all the variables together to create a realistic tactical environment for players to engage in ground warfare
- Different ways of representing ground combat based on a wide range of commercial and professional games
- Air and Naval games:
- Integration of multi-domain operations (MDO) from space to surface into the overall air-battle kill chain
- How do build games that focus on air combat operations, and air combat operations in support of ground forces
- Methods for abstracting and estimating air combat values
- Putting ordnance on not only the target, but the entire kill chain, from identification to battle damage assessment
- Additional topics, depending on participant interest
Overview
Gaming Space Operations is a three-day course focused on how we develop and execute games that involve operations. The course will cover the basics of game design, so that students with no background can understand gaming, but will focus on building games that deal with operations in space. There will be an emphasis on the role that orbital mechanics and space flight considerations play on game design, and students should be prepared to engage with quantitative concepts.
Note that the class will emphasize manual games, with and without digital modeling assistance. This class will be strictly at the UNCLASSIFED/OPEN SOURCE level.
Objectives:
- How to accurately reflect space operations in games focused on other subjects, such as a China warfight.
- The unique requirements for building accurate, but playable, games focused on space systems.
- Building scenarios and games at the intersection of public policy, acquisition, cyber, or strategic defense.
- Representation of space graphically and abstraction of space movement and maneuver operations.
- Building strategic games on the global competition in space.
Prerequisites:
While no prior experience in either gaming or space operations is required for this course, students should have some basic experience with military operations, multi-domain operational concepts, and how conflicts on both the earth and in space might be fought. As in all our courses, the instructors will adapt the class to student’s interests and focus.
The course will be made up of lectures, student exercises, and game encounters where students will play, then redesign, games involving space operations. The course will end with a practical student design problem where students work on one of their own game problems, assisted by the instructors.
