War games may be popular software on commercial computers, but they also provide important lessons for military educational institutions. Among them, the U.S. Naval War College recently gained Network and Simulation Technologies, Inc. (Netsimco) as a partner in the design and delivery of naval war games for the college. As part of an approximate $59 million contract, Netsimco will provide support services for war-gaming, education, and research for the Naval War College including computers and software for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) educational purposes. The contract (contract N00189-21-D-Z018), with a five-year ordering period expected to be completed by April 2026, was issued by the Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia Office.
In autumn of 2019, the Naval War College (see the figure), with the help of many other medical and humanitarian experts, developed a wargame based on how game players would respond to pandemic-induced medical emergencies. The analytic wargame, called “Urban Outbreak 2019,” projected the effects of a contagious virus on highly populated areas, with players asked to vote for five essential organizations needed in response to a viral pandemic. The wargame was developed by NWC’s Humanitarian Response Program in collaboration with other organizations, including the Applied Physics Lab (APL) of Johns Hopkins University. The ”Urban Outbreak 2019” wargame predicts a widespread disease eerily like the COVID-19 outbreak, which would be identified at about March of the following year. The wargame led to the development of 16 key research and game findings that could be applied as part of civilian-military responses to a bacterial or viral worldwide disease outbreak. Many of these same findings (wearing of masks, social distancing, quarantines) are now being applied as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.