Web-based Army Repeatable Lesson in Operational Combat (WARLOC)

Abstract

The current generation of junior officers have spent the last ten years continuously deployed with tactical units focused on stability operations for both training and execution. This has led to a significant degradation in Major Combat Operations (MCO) planning and execution abilities at both the tactical and especially the operational-level. Faced with an unclear operating environment and a population of experienced combat vets, the senior military leaders must determine the training direction of the armed services. In a fiscally-constrained environment, web-based learning games can assist in rapidly bridging the gap between the familiar and unfamiliar at a lower cost and at increased adoption rates versus large simulations. This thesis describes the designing and development process of an original web-based wargame that familiarizes junior field-grade and senior company-grade officers on MCO operations at the joint level. The end state was the production of a completed paper wargame and a VASSAL module which adapted the paper version into an electronic form. Lastly, using HTML5, Javascript and mainly free-to-use tools, we created a prototype wargame that only requires a web browser for service members to play.