Military Computer Simulation Exercises Ref: Means (#1897). As the purpose of th

American armed forces according to popular conception are characterized by hightechnology weapons systems and hightechnology support systems (Powell, 1992, p. 370). The older perceptions of the military services as places where Murphy's law (if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong) is the order of the day, and wherein the admonition "hurry up and wait" is an article of faith are passe. Are they really! A mild assessment of the Operation Desert Shield deployment prior to the Gulf War was that the exercise demonstrated a "need for realistic training in harsh conditions" (Lenorovitz, 1990, pp. S1S2). A more realistic assessment of the problems faced by the military forces in preparing for action through the exercises to maintain combat readiness is that such training, particularly training involving the computer simulation of hostile environments, is often ineffective because computer simulation models are required to "conform to political requirements" (Dunnigan, 1988, p. 314). In other words, largescale military exercises frequently fail because they are based upon unrealistic politicallybased assumptions, as opposed to everyday reality. The truth likely lies at some point along the continuum formed by these polar assessments.

The research study for which of which this literature review is a part is concerned with largescale, computersimulation military logistical exerc

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and in West Africa. Air lift operations depend first on the Military Airlift Command (MAC), and second on the Civilian Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF). The CRAF is a creation of the national airlift policy, which forges a common bond between the United States government, as represented by the Department of Defense (DOD), and the civil aviation industry, as represented by individual participating air carriers (Cohoon, 1989, pp. 912). Through contractual arrangements between DOD and individual air transportation carriers, "a fleet of preidentified civil passenger and cargo aircraft" is "committed to supporting military strategic airlift requirements in emergencies" (Cohoon, 1989, p. 20). The CRAF includes "almost all of the widebodied jets operated by domestic U.S. airlines and roughly 170 commercial cargo planes" (Cohoon, 1989, p. 20). During an emergency, the aircraft in the CRAF remain under the operational control of the individual air carriers; however, the missions for these aircraft are assigned by the Military Airlift Command of the United States Air Force. Thus, it is not just civilian aircraft which are a part of the CRAF. Civilian pilots, ground crews, and other essential members of participating air carrier organi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Drew Snow, Ralston Reilly, Bloomfield Whaley, MRP Processing, Gulf War, Widman Loparo, Middle East, Defense DOD, Soviet Union, Central America, force employment, land prepositioning, purpose force employment, air lift, purpose force, lift operations, logistics support, sea prepositioning, sea lift, computer simulation, support purpose, support purpose force, logistics support purpose, air lift operations, computersimulation military logistical,
Approximate Word count = 4087
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)