After action review in military training simulations

This paper will discuss the development and application of an After Action Review (AAR) system for military training exercises such as Reforger, Central Fortress, Prairie Warrior, Team Spirit, and Ulchi Focus Lens. Attention will given to the role of software reuse in the development of the system. This will illustrate the speed and cost savings that can be accomplished by using this form of rapid implementation. AAR systems are used to capture and evaluate the performance of military units participating in the exercise and to indicate the simulation's ability to provide a realistic environment for training these units. Prior to the development of automated systems exercise data was collected and manipulated manually. This severely limited the scope of information that could be extracted and presented during the course of the exercise. Detailed analysis had to be performed in the months following an exercise with the final report being provided to the commanders at a later date. This time delay greatly diminished the usefulness of the information and eliminated any opportunity to learn from and improve upon performance during the training event. Automated AAR can provide almost immediate feedback to the training audience allowing them to modify their behavior multiple times during the event and thus improve their performance.