THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190403
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
In this war, the biggest fear is a power failure or downed telephone line linking the computers.
There will be no real casualties, only simulated air strikes, tank battles, Marine landings and naval missile shoots as the electronic wizardry of simulation-driven war gaming takes all the heat.
The military's Joint Warfighting Center, headquartered for barely a year at Fort Monroe, premieres its first large-scale exercise today, simulating a 40,000-member force waging battle on land, in the air and at sea.
Only, in this case, the battle takes place on computer screens from here to Texas, cutting the costs of a field exercise by more than 500 percent, game planners say.
It is designed primarily for the senior staff members who form the combined joint task force. They are the ones who will have to decide - in a real crisis - when and where forces will be sent.
The exercise, called Unified Endeavor '95, is sponsored by the U.S. Atlantic Command, headquartered in Norfolk. Participating are military commanders and staffs representing each branch of the armed forces. They are planning the strategies that will win the war by Monday, the designated end of the exercise.
Army Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk, commander of III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, is leading the computer-generated maneuvers that mark a new approach to providing trained forces for joint operations.
Using additional forces from the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, N.C.; the Air Force at Barksdale, La.; and the Navy, working from a command center at St. Juliens Creek in Portsmouth, Funk will meet opposing forces formed by Army Reserves working in Birmingham, Ala.
Previous military exercises have relied heavily on massive, expensive field maneuvers that, in the case of Exercise Ocean Venture last year, cost $15 million. This exercise, nearly equal in scope, will cost about $3 million, according to officials, and will provide the commanders equal, if not better, training.
``In the past we would put 40,000 people in the field,'' said Army Col. Bob Graebener, senior simulation controller for this exercise.
``Today we have just 10,000. We really save in what we call command post exercises, rather than a (field training exercise) when lots of forces are in the field.
``We save resources, the environment, and wear and tear on our equipment too,'' Graebener said.
Troops still get their everyday training to make them proficient in their particular expertise, Graebener said. They still have an opportunity to work on their rifle and tank ranges.
The real value in this simulation is for the headquarters staff, which must make fast and accurate decisions that lives can depend on, he said.
``For example, a commander may want to destroy all of a country's power plants,'' said Marine Maj. Hal Roby, a senior simulator controller with the warfighting center.
``But what about the nuclear power plants?'' he asked. ``What will that do? Would dropping an electric transformer two miles from the plant do just as well?
``Maybe he (the commander) decides to knock out a hydroelectric plant. Well, does that also knock out next year's rice crop?''
Scenarios like these are incorporated into the center's models, which are becoming more sophisticated each day, Roby said.
In future years, the computers will provide higher resolution and considerably more information. by CNB