More than 350 players, analysts and observers converged on the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's (BMDO's) Joint National Test Facility (JNTF) from 11 through 14 December to think about and practice responding to just such a limited missile attack on the United States. They were here to participate in Command and Control Simulation 2000 (C2 Sim 00), the nation's premier annual National Missile Defense wargame.

Unfortunately, the threat of a missile attack on the United States or its allies is becoming more likely each day as weapons of mass destruction continue to proliferate.

Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, Director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) summed up the missile threat in Congressional testimony this way: "We've seen since the 1991 Gulf War a proliferation of ballistic missile capabilities throughout the world, both through technology and system transfers and indigenous development. Over twenty countries now have ballistic missiles of theater range. Some two dozen countries have, or are capable of developing, weapons of mass destruction. The pairing of these capabilities is a dangerous trend that demonstrates that ballistic missiles are rapidly becoming the weapon of choice among regional powers."

The simulation was co-sponsored by the National Missile Defense Joint Program Office (NMD JPO) and the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM).

For the ninth time, this world-class simulation brought National Missile Defense warfighters and developers together to evaluate the human-in-control operational decision process and to gather data about key performance assessments such as: How well does the nation's proposed missile defense system support human-in-control aspects of NMD? How is the battle management, command, control and communication (BMC3) system progressing? What is the best way to integrate command and control with system capabilities?

This year's scenario was jointly developed by USSPACECOM and the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) to investigate the fundamental command and control elements of NMD and National Command Authority (NCA) control. While USSTRATCOM has participated in past Command and Control simulations, this is the first time a focused, full-range military response scenario has been exercised.

Gen. Ralph E. "Ed" Eberhart, Commander in Chief (CINC), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), CINC U.S. Space Command, and Commander, U.S. Air Force Space Command, welcomed the opportunities C2 Sim provided.

"This game is important to developers, testers, operators, policy makers and decision makers -- in short, all those affected by this operation," the general said in comments before the exercise got under way.

C2 Sim 00 consisted of two days of training followed by two days of scenario-driven exercise play. The simulation postulated a national missile system in place, and used six scenarios of possible threats the United States might face to examine various components of NMD doctrine and operational procedures.

Key military players participating in the simulation were: General Eberhart; Admiral Richard W. Mies, Commander in Chief (CINC), U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM); Canadian Forces Lt. Gen. George E. C. Macdonald, Deputy CINC, NORAD; Army Lt. Gen. Edward G. Anderson III, Deputy CINC U.S. Space Command; Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, Director of Operations, U.S. Joint Staff; Air Force Lt.Gen. Robert C. Hinson, Deputy CINC USSTRATCOM; and Army Lt.Gen. John Costello, Commanding General, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

"The goal of C2 Sim 00 was to exercise the entire NMD operational chain from the [simulation] President and [simulation] Secretary of Defense down through the junior officers and NCOs in the Fire Direction Center," said Army Maj. Gen. Willie B. Nance, Jr. General Nance is the National Missile Defense Program Executive Officer and System Program Director for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, and co-sponsor of C2 Sim 00. "In the process, we wanted to look at a variety of concepts and procedures from both the operational requirements and the concept of operation points of view.

"The real value of this simulation, though, is that it allowed us to get operator feedback early in the development process," General Nance said.

James M. Bodner, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, played the President during the simulation.

"I know a huge amount of work went in to preparing for and participating in this simulation," Bodner said. "The more preparation we do up and down the chain, the more likely we are to get it right."

Creating a realistic and challenging environment for the hundreds of participants in the simulation was a daunting task for the USSPACECOM, NMD Joint Program Office and JNTF staffs.

"The simulation environment was created by uniting the JNTF's Wargame 2000 with the current NMD BMC3 prototype and the JNTF's Missile Defense and Space Tool," explained Canadian Maj. Steve DeLory, the JNTF's C2 Sim 00 Event Manager. "The result was a flexible, high-level simulation which allowed the participants to examine the effectiveness of various future missile defense architectures."

C2 Sim 00 gave the NMD operators a hands-on opportunity to look at the BMC3 software being developed for them.

"I liked the exercise because it gave me a chance to validate the procedures I would use as an NMD operator," said Army Maj. Greg Bowen, an Army National Guardsman from North Dakota currently assigned to Army Space Command headquarters. "Another real benefit of C2 Sim is that it brings the entire NMD command and control structure together to examine and improve the nation's NMD tactics, techniques and procedures."

"Different people learned different lessons during this simulation, depending on what their role is in the NMD system," observed General Eberhart. "The simulation has been very, very valuable for me.

"C2 Sim gave us an opportunity to examine some tough issues, which we'll discuss more in coming days and practice in future simulations," Eberhart said. "But I'm sure we'll work our way through it.

The JNTF is a unique national resource specifically designed and built to provide BMDO with a center of excellence for joint missile defense interoperability testing, wargaming, exercises, simulation, modeling and analysis.

"C2 Sim 00 demonstrated the vital role the JNTF plays as a rapid prototyping environment which serves as a bridge between the warfighter and developer communities," said Army Col. James Armstrong, Jr., the JNTF Commander. "Our rapid prototyping capability is vital in helping the nation quickly field an interoperable, smoothly functioning battle management/command, control and communications system for the nation's NMD system."

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