One of the most important applications of computation is to simulate physical systems. Numerous excellent texts are available on general techniques and principles of simulation, but each domain presents particular challenges and requirements that must be considered if simulation results are to be reliable. This book focuses on the important domain of combat modeling, and in particular the challenges of distributed simulation.

The book is really two volumes in one. The first three parts, totaling 330 pages, are all written by the volume editor, Andreas Tolk, and offer an integrated, coherent discussion of important dimensions of combat modeling. The rest of the book, some 530 pages, consists of 17 standalone chapters on “advanced topics,” contributed by 34 other authors.

The first chapter introduces the scope of the volume as a whole, identifying the challenges that combat modelers face in a distributed environment.

The four chapters in Part 1, “Foundations,” provide background information. Tolk devotes an entire chapter to the ethics of combat modeling, reflecting a sensitivity to the profound consequences of the kinds of decisions that are often based on simulation results. The next chapter discusses international standards for the quality assessment of command and control decisions. The third chapter introduces modeling and military terminology so that a nonmilitary reader can follow the discussion, and the fourth reviews the elements that might be included in a military simulation.

Part 2, “Combat Modeling,” focuses on how one models these elements and their interactions, and devotes separate chapters to the environment, movement, sensing, effects of military action, and the main elements of human interaction (communications, command, and control).

Part 3, “Distributed Simulation,” addresses particular challenges when a simulation is distributed across multiple computers (or integrated with portions of an exercise that are played out with real people and equipment). Realistic combat simulations are often distributed, which presents particular problems that do not arise with an integrated system.

The contributors to Part 4 represent a cross section of military, academic, and industrial experts with deep and varied experience in combat simulation. Some chapters deal with specific standards or conventions emerging among practitioners of military simulation, such as the test and training enabling architecture (TENA) for exercises that include both real-world and simulated components, or the military scenario definition language (MSDL). Others consider specific modeling challenges such as geographic information systems (GIS), various tactical data links, and human, social, cultural, and behavioral (HSCB) features. Still others deal with specific technical issues such as multi-resolution modeling and the representation of uncertainty.

Two appendices summarize organizations working in modeling and simulation, and existing military simulation systems.

Each chapter has its own bibliography, but the book includes an integrated list of acronyms and an integrated 20-page index.

Tolk and his coauthors have extensive experience in this area, making this volume a standard reference for researchers engaged in combat modeling. The complexity of the domain, the consequences of error, and the prohibitive cost of direct experimentation are as great in combat modeling as in any other problem area, making this volume a valuable source of examples and techniques for modelers in other areas that are highly complex, consequential, and inaccessible by direct experiment.