Capturing Soldier Fitness Levels in Combat Simulations

Combat simulations typically depict individual soldiers as identical entities, neglecting differences in their ability to execute warfighting tasks. An essential aspect of a soldier's effectiveness is their physical fitness, which impacts their performance on the battlefield, including their mobility, survivability, and lethality. This paper develops two models to correlate soldier physical fitness to movement speeds and shooting accuracy. The first model, derived from literature, links soldier movement speeds and durations to their physical fitness levels, characterized by their $VO_{2.\max}$, which is correlated with their two-mile run time. The second model used data collected from soldiers (n=60) to correlate shooting accuracy, fitness, and marksmanship scores when firing from a standing position. These models are integrated into an agent-based combat simulation to assess the impact of physical fitness on soldier survivability and lethality in urban operations. The results show that increased soldier physical fitness significantly improves soldier survivability.