"All Things Missile" To Consolidate Simulated Missile Training Environments

Written by Gene Davis and Mac Capello Wednesday, 03 February 2010 09:41

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The All Things Missile (ATM) effort began approximately 18 months ago with an initial concept brief at the Ballistic Missile Defense Integrated Training Working Group. Additionally, in November 2008 USJFCOM J7 hosted the 0-6 level Models and Simulations Training Gap Analysis Forum. During this forum all combatant commander (COCOM) and service representatives voted the missile mission area as the number one technical training shortfall. The ATM community of interest was established and the issues were briefed at numerous forums including the World Wide Joint Training Conference, the Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment (ITW/AA) Operational Assessment Board, the Ballistic Missile Defense Joint Council of Colonels and Captains, the US Fleet Forces Command (USFFC) Integrated Air and Missile (IAMD) conference, and various other venues. This effort resulted in a solid ATM team consisting of USJFCOM J7/J8, NORAD and USNORTHCOM, USPACOM, USFFC, USA FORSCOM, Missile Defense Agency, Joint Functional Component Command -Integtrated Missile Defense, Air Force Space Command, Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization, and other agencies and organizations.

On October 6, 2008, Rear Admiral McClain, USSTRATCOM J3, officially directed the ATM effort and defined the five areas of concern: ITW/AA; command and control battle management and communications; Global Command and Control System Common Operating Picture; Nuclear Planning and Execution System and other relevant missile display systems. ATM’s objective is to provide combatant commanders a flexible training capability that is distributed and integrated, covering missile warning and IAMD, which stimulates operational display systems and is dynamic, portable, scalable and affordable.

ATM has developed a six step process to accomplish its objective: develop the information/description of the training issue; perform a mission capabilities analysis and define the training requirements; develop technical requirements; perform technical solutions analysis; test and document the solution; and make closure determination. The output of the six step process will be a DoD Joint Capabilities Integration Development System program of record that is integrated with USJFCOM’s Joint Live Virtual Constructive (JLVC) Federation. This training capability will be available to a wide range of training audiences.

In solving this very complex issue, the ATM team is taking an iterative approach. To simplify the problem, we determined that the entire operational capability did not need to be addressed; only the operational equipment that the training audience is training on had to be stimulated. However, the simulation has to reflect the culmination of all previous actions that would have otherwise been reported on. Thus, the input into the equipment being trained on is what is critical. Further, ATM has been broken down by training tiers—training tiers 1-3 (COCOM, joint task force, service component) and training tier 4 (service tactical). This was done because there are differing requirement complexities across the training tiers.

To date, the ATM team has defined the training issue, performed the mission analysis and identified the training requirements for the missile mission area. Technical requirements are currently under development. The mission analysis, which includes training and technical requirements, is being staffed for flag level approval.

ATM Training Concept

ATM’s training capacity is envisioned to be a standalone but scalable capability that stimulates display systems that have the look and feel of the operational systems for the missile mission set, but are in complete isolation from the operational system. This effort is also designed to be in compliance with commander, USSTRATCOM and USSTRATCOM J3 direction as previously stated.

ATM Training Current Status/ Way Ahead

On December 16, 2009 there was an ATM Training Tiers 1-3 Missile Mission initial architecture proof of concept at USJFCOM J7’s ATT Lab. This initial architecture covers approximately 70 percent of the missile mission area. The proof of concept displayed the architecture’s scalable capability and its initial integration with USJFCOM J7’s JLVC Federation. As future testing of this architecture continues and technical issues are resolved, the intent is for each COCOM stakeholder to have their own ATM training capability for tiers 1-3, allowing for home station training/exercise scenario development and execution. Further testing will drive the ultimate goal of full integration with the JLVC Federation. This will drive ATM to a full tier 1-4 distributed training capability over the Joint Training and Experimentation Network and other service network architectures. ♦

Editor’s note: Gene Davis is M&S technical manager, Training Development Solutions Division, USJFCOM J7. His email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Mac Capello is manager, M&S futures capabilities, USSTRATCOM J7. His email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .