A development methodology for adding map-based graphics to the theater war exercise

The Theater War Exercise (TWX) is a computer-assisted, theater level airpower employment exercise conducted by the Air Force Wargaming Center. Its primary purpose is to give senior level military officers a feel for the intricacies of high level decision-making in a combined air/land conventional warfare situation. Until recently, output from TWX consisted of a large number of tabular hard-copy reports which were difficult to understand and cumbersome to use. This paper discusses the development of a map-based graphical interface to TWX which provides a much more user-friendly interface to the information and provides a baseline for the development of new techniques for user interaction with the exercise. The methodology and toolset developed for this project are of particular interest because of their applicability to a wide variety of other wargaming and simulation systems.