Architecture of the Counter Insurgency Experiment

The Counter Insurgency (COIN) Experiment was performed in March 2007 using a distributed network. It focused on simulating urban operations in Central Asia in 2015. A major goal of the experiment was to demonstrate the use of a complex Models and Simulation federation to train and evaluate doctrine for a COIN Environment. Participating federates included OFOTB, FireSim, JSAF, CultureSim, EADSim, CMS2, UC, ACRT, ACRT-DR, JNEM, ISM, SA Server, MC2, Communications & Electronics Research Development & Engineering Center (CERDEC), CES, AOI Server, EFS, Reporter, DataLogger and SEAMS.This was an entity-level distributed simulation event that included sites at Ft Knox, Ft Sill, Ft Bliss, and Huntsville, using the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) and HLA protocols.Approximate entity counts included 1000 US vehicles and soldiers, 1000 Local Police and Army, 1200 insurgents, and 20,000 civilians from various population groups.

Several new and enhanced models contributed to the richness of the COIN environment. A Force model was developed that allowed each station to control its rules of engagement, which is crucial for a situation where the enemy depend on who and where you are. A model of uniformed entities versus plain clothes was added since insurgents do not generally show themselves as such.The JNEM/ISM provided real-time feedback on the mood of the various civilian population groups. A new model of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) was developed that simulated several trigger types, decoys and countermeasures. Suppressive effects were added, including non-lethal rounds. The area-of-interest model was improved to allow good simulation performance in a dense urban environment. The terrain database had 10,000 fully modeled multi-elevation buildings along with 650,000 volume buildings.

COIN marked a dramatic leap forward in our ability to simulate urban warfare. It showed that it is possible to use entity-level simulation to examine situations relevant to today’s Army, such as stability operations, counter insurgencies, and the hybrid enemy.This experiment demonstrated many first uses of innovative models and techniques that are now standard, and established a benchmark of success in terms of its fidelity, performance, and complexity.