By Dr. Randall W. Hill, Jr, Vice Dean, Viterbi School of Engineering, Omar B. Milligan Professor in Computer Science (Games and Interactive Media), Executive Director, ICT
After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Dr. Randall W. Hill Jr served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, with assignments in field artillery and military intelligence, before earning his Masters and PhD in Computer Science from USC. He then worked at NASA JPL in the Deep Space Network Advanced Technology Program, before joining the USC Information Sciences Institute to pursue models of human behavior and decision-making for real-time simulation environments. This research brought him to ICT as a Senior Scientist in 2000, and then promoted to Executive Director in 2006. Dr. Hill is a member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and has authored over 80 technical publications.
Wargaming has been an essential tool for military strategy and training for millennia. From sand tables used by the Roman legions to the 19th Century “Kriegsspiel,” a structured board game that introduced probability, terrain modeling, and real-time decision-making into military simulations, war games have provided a means to visualize conflict, anticipate enemy actions, and refine strategic thinking. The advent of computers in the mid-20th century revolutionized wargaming, allowing for increasingly complex and dynamic simulations that could incorporate vast datasets, artificial intelligence, and real-world geographical modeling.
At the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), we push the boundaries of military training through advanced simulation, artificial intelligence, interactive digital storytelling, and learning sciences, for the benefit of the US Army, and other branches of the Department of Defense. Since its founding in 1999, ICT has pioneered research into leveraging cutting-edge creativity and technology for military applications, creating immersive training environments that enhance decision-making, situational awareness, and operational readiness.
Our landmark achievement is the development of high-fidelity virtual environments that provide soldiers with realistic training experiences. Through our geospatial terrain research, we recreate conflict zones with unprecedented accuracy, allowing troops to practice mission scenarios, refine tactics, and adapt to unpredictable battlefield conditions in a controlled setting.
Many ICT projects, which fall into the field of wargaming, have become DoD POR (Programs of Record) including research which led to: One World Terrain; DisasterSim; ELITE; JFETS; Mobile C-IED Trainer (MCIT); Tactical Questioning IEWTPT; ELECT-BiLat; UrbanSim (Games for Training POR).
In this list below, we provide a broad overview of ICT’s capabilities within the wargaming arena, over the past twenty-five years.
MISSION REHEARSAL EXERCISE
Our first wargaming project was the Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRE), a leap-forward prototype that showed what could be done using the very latest technology (in the year 2000) with sound, vision, 3D immersion, graphics and virtual humans.
The simulation opens with a young lieutenant arriving at the scene of an accident in Bosnia. One of his Humvees has collided with a civilian car. There is a small child, seriously injured on the ground, and a frantic mother. A crowd starts to form. What should the lieutenant do? Continue on with the mission, or stop and render aid?
In this scenario, the townspeople, the soldiers, the mother and her child were all virtual humans (AIs). The trainee stood in front of a curved screen that was 8.75 feet tall and 31.3 feet wide illuminated by three BARCO projectors that were edge-blended so that the image appeared seamlessly. An SGI Onyx Reality Monster provided the computational resources to drive the experience.
At the grand opening, people were queued up to see the Mission Rehearsal Exercise. The experience was impressive. The wraparound screen enveloped and immersed the viewers, the 10.2 sound system not only surrounded the viewer with sound but gave a vertical dimension as well, so that when a helicopter flew overhead during the demo, it sounded like it was churning its way through the ceiling tiles. And the virtual humans showed where AI technology could go and support training in innovative ways.
In this essay, 50 Years in Artificial Intelligence, ICT’s Chief Science Officer (CSO), Dr. William Swartout, talks about the significance of this early work.
POST 9-11 TASK FORCE (EITK)
In response to 9/11, ICT created the Entertainment Industry Task Force (EITF) which brought together some of our country’s most creative minds to help the U.S. military anticipate and prepare for terrorist threats. Work which came out of the EITF centered on training warfighters dealing with counterterrorism, rather than near peer conflict.
By leveraging expertise in storytelling, special effects, and immersive world-building, ICT worked with top directors, screenwriters, and game designers to craft training scenarios that engage soldiers in ways traditional methods cannot match.
These exercises resulted in the development of narrative-driven simulations that blended real-world intelligence with fictionalized yet plausible scenarios to better prepare warfighters for asymmetric threats. We also pioneered incorporating real-time data analysis tools to update simulations based on evolving global conflicts.
FULL SPECTRUM WARRIOR (FSW) / COMMAND (FSC)
ICT has also played a pivotal role in transforming commercial gaming technologies into serious military training tools. For example, our collaboration with industry partners led to the development of “Full Spectrum Warrior,” a game initially designed to train squad leaders in urban combat tactics. This project demonstrated the power of interactive digital environments for decision-making training, influencing a generation of military simulation systems.
Similarly, “Full Spectrum Command” was developed to train company commanders in complex military decision-making, providing immersive, scenario-driven experiences that reinforce tactical leadership skills.
During the funding of these two projects, we expanded our simulation capabilities to include force-on-force training models, where multiple teams operate in an interconnected environment, reacting dynamically to each other’s strategies.
FUTURE COMBAT SYSTEMS (FCS)
After the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, General Eric Shinseki, then Chief of Staff of the Army, wanted a way to re-capitalize, and re-fit, the Army’s rolling stock (tanks), as these were so large, and heavy, that they were tough to transport overseas rapidly.
ICT took on this challenge (which our first Creative Director, Jim Korris, goes into more detail here) and, through ideation, we scoped out vehicles that would be lightweight and could be deployed in numbers rapidly. With less armor and protection, warfighters would be kept safe by having a highly-capable, robust network of sensors, people, and resources to bring a fight to the enemy without taking unnecessary risks.
Everything we learned in this project enabled us to pivot in smarter thinking about what the Army needs – and build that into our simulations for wargaming for the future.
ELECT BiLAT
Beyond combat training, our research has extended into areas such as cultural awareness, negotiation, and counterinsurgency operations. Our project ELECT BiLAT enabled soldiers to engage in virtual bilateral negotiations, enhancing their ability to navigate complex social and political landscapes. ELECT BiLAT integrated advanced artificial intelligence and virtual human technology, allowing trainees to engage in dynamic conversations with culturally nuanced virtual characters, ensuring they develop crucial diplomatic and negotiation skills.
To further refine cultural competence, ICT incorporated language training modules, reinforcing key communication techniques that improved effectiveness in cross-cultural missions.
SCITECH FUTURES
ICT’s SciTech Futures program was another groundbreaking initiative that helped Army leaders ideate in the science and technology space by identifying blind spots in military planning. Funded by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Research & Technology), ICT built out a web-based platform and in-person workshops, to engage soldiers, engineers, and academics in collaborative exercises to envision future warfare scenarios. This program led to the conceptualization of new operational strategies and the refinement of next-generation training methodologies.
Our interactive ideation exercises leveraged key subject matter experts to contribute to military foresight and strategy development and integrated nascent augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) tools, allowing participants to immerse themselves in speculative future battlefields.
Additionally, our research in artificial intelligence-driven training solutions culminated in the development of intelligent tutoring systems that provided real-time feedback and adaptive learning experiences. These systems leveraged machine learning algorithms to assess soldier performance and adjust training scenarios dynamically, ensuring that each trainee receives personalized instruction tailored to their strengths and weaknesses. Our AI-driven models also enabled the creation of autonomous adversaries that challenged trainees in realistic, evolving combat scenarios, enhancing decision-making under pressure.
MOBILE COUNTER-IED TRAINER (MCIT)
In the domain of counterinsurgency training, ICT developed the Mobile Counter-IED Trainer (MCIT), which offered immersive, scenario-based learning experiences to help soldiers recognize and respond to improvised explosive device threats.
By integrating cognitive task analysis and interactive simulations, MCIT significantly improved the effectiveness of counter-IED training, reducing casualties in real-world operations, developed as a multiplayer, networked simulation to train soldiers in ambush tactics and convoy protection, utilizing after-action review tools to enhance learning retention.
The final iteration of our counter-IED training included predictive analytics, allowing for simulated adaptation to new insurgent tactics.
URBAN SIM & DISASTER SIM
ICT’s commitment to advancing wargaming also extends to medical and humanitarian training within conflict zones.
DisasterSim is a game-based training tool focused on international disaster relief. Trainees take on the role of a joint task force staff member coordinating the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) humanitarian aid and disaster relief efforts in a foreign country following a natural disaster.
Among the tasks, trainees must attempt to restore essential services, reconstruct civil infrastructure and provide humanitarian assistance, all while managing interactions with local civil authorities, non-governmental organizations, and other US government relief organizations. They must use their judgment to prioritize and execute lifesaving tasks while operating within DoD limits related to medical relief and infrastructure repairs. Trainee actions in the exercise can impact future interactions and may also influence the overall scenario.
DisasterSim is built upon ICT’s UrbanSim platform, a ICT-developed cognitive trainer widely used in Army classroom and operational settings to practice executing the “Art of Mission Command” in asymmetric or irregular warfare environments, including counterinsurgency and stability operations.
Both training games are driven by a novel story engine that interjects events and situations based on the real-world experiences and lessons learned. They include an intelligent tutoring system, which provides guidance to trainees during execution, as well as after action review capabilities.
DisasterSim was funded by PEO STRI and developed in partnership with the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).
UrbanSim officially transitioned to the Army as part of two programs of records, Games for Training and the Low Overhead Training Toolkit. It is available at the Army’s MilGaming portal.
TACTICAL QUESTIONING & INTERROGATION TRAINER (TQIT)
Funded by the US Army, the Tactical Questioning & Interrogation Trainer (TQIT) allows soldiers to practice intelligence-gathering techniques in a controlled virtual environment, improving interrogation effectiveness while adhering to ethical and legal guidelines.
ICT developed technology for virtual humans to act as question-answering characters. The focus of the project was on tactical questioning, but the technology was used successfully for a variety of interview tasks, including criminal investigator-prisoner and for training deception detection.
SEA STRIKE 2043
Sea Strike 2043 is an 11-minute film depicting future technology, weapons, and human-machine interfaces, which was commissioned by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division and the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. This project was created at ICT by our Force Writers Room (FWR).
FWR brings together military experts, futurists, and creative minds to build detailed, narrative-driven simulations that explore the impact of emerging technologies and geopolitical shifts on warfare. These scenarios serve as foresight exercises, helping defense planners prepare for unconventional conflicts and hybrid warfare strategies.
In the past few months, FWR has expanded its scope to include scenario planning for cybersecurity threats, information warfare, and emerging AI-driven conflicts.
WATERCRAFT AND SHIP SIMULATOR OF THE FUTURE (WSSOF)
The Army requires a Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) ready force that can seamlessly transition from one domain to the other, such as those during maritime littoral operations. The WSSOF is a tool that can improve transition efficiency by enabling the warfighter to apriori investigate littoral zone operations in a manner that exercises all possibilities of environmental conditions such as wave heights, winds etc. in a manner that is safe and effective.
This collaborative effort with ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), fosters a leap forward in hyper-realistic ship motion using improvements in numerical simulations of vessel motion, Information Technology (IT), as well as computational speeds to enable the physics-based and real-time simulation of these interactions. Contemporary ship simulations are large, bulky, and stationary with minimal portability.
To mitigate these limitations a network enabled ship simulator equipped with Virtual and Mixed-Reality technology coupled with high fidelity numerical modeling can provide a means to meet these operational needs and enhance ship survivability in operational deployments.
The interdisciplinary team has now successfully developed a VR-enabled system that allows a single user to pilot a vessel within a geo-specific coastal environment. This was accomplished by combining littoral zone wave physics models with a water rendering system in a 3D game engine. This combined system results in dynamic, realistic, and real-time near shore waves within the simulation environment.
LEADERS ENHANCED APPLIED DOCTRINE SYSTEM (LEADS)
ICT is currently engaged in updating doctrinal training and wargaming within the Leaders Enhanced and Applied Doctrine System (LEADS) project. LEADS is an innovative web-based digital platform designed to help Army leaders better comprehend and apply the updated Field Manual 3-0 (FM 3-0) on large-scale combat operations and multi-domain warfare.
By incorporating interactive scenario-based learning and AI-driven tutoring, LEADS facilitates an engaging and efficient way to grasp doctrinal concepts. The system is being developed in collaboration with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and the Mission Command Center of Excellence (MCCOE) to enhance training effectiveness and strategic comprehension.
Recent advancements in LEADS include an adaptive learning AI that customizes training paths based on individual performance metrics.
TRAINING SYNTHETIC AGENTS WITHIN SIMULATIONS
Effective wargaming simulations today depend on autonomous synthetic characters – often referred to as NPC (Non-Player Characters). Essentially these are AIs with a “mind of their own” which can operate alongside humans. Prior to this research, synthetic entities in military simulations often fell short of expectations, as they relied on rule-based or reactive computational models, which are only minimally intelligent and incapable of adapting based on experience. Having said that, even at that current level, they are costly to create and take time to develop.
At ICT, to create more effective synthetic entities, we develop adaptive models that demonstrate human-like behavior—entities that can communicate, perceive their environment, reason, and choose actions dynamically – via experiential learning. To this end, our research at ICT combines Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) with Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and Large Language Models (LLMs), drawing inspiration from fields as diverse as operations research, cognitive science, game theory, and artificial intelligence.
This interdisciplinary approach enables us to tackle complex challenges on behalf of our Army sponsors with ever more sophisticated wargaming simulations. Dr. Volkan Ustun, Director, Human-inspired Adaptive Teaming Systems (HATs) Lab, goes into more detail about this subject here.
HUMAN-MACHINE INTEGRATION
Many wargames today require warfighters to work alongside AIs, while also learning to “understand how the enemy thinks.” At ICT’s Social Simulation Lab we have modeled and simulated human social interaction within AI systems in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Artificial Social Intelligence in Support of Teams (ASIST) program.
Of course, one’s enemy changes depending on the nature of the conflict. For example, for US Army Cyber Command, dealing with electromagnetic warfare, the enemy are unseen hackers threatening national security with a cyber breach.
As part of the Intelligence Advanced Research projects Activity (IARPA) ReSCIND (Reimagining Security with Cyberpsychology-Informed Network Defenses) program, ICT is building statistical models of hackers’ cognitive biases that can inform our social-simulation architecture, known as PsychSim, to encompass cyber defense.
In essence, giving PsychSim agents descriptive models of attackers and prescriptive models of defenses against them enables us to simulate and predict normatively correct responses for different cyber attacks. Dr. Nik Gurney, Research Lead, Social Simulation Lab explains more here:
ADVANCED ADAPTIVE HEAD MOUNTED DISPLAY INTERFACES [A2HMDI]
Our Mixed Reality (MxR) / Modeling & Simulation Labs are currently developing advanced mixed-reality visualizations, interactions and user-interfaces called A2HMDI. These will enable Commanders, Staffs and units from Division to individual Soldiers to achieve a data convergence and a shared common operating picture which can adapt to their relevant role, scope of responsibility, security level, and specific mission objectives.
Our researchers are focusing on user-centered research to ensure that these mixed-reality user-interactions can meet the cognitive and operational needs of military personnel, while also enhancing situational understanding, to engender quality decision-making in LSCO operational and training scenarios.
TOMORROW’S CONFLICTS
“War is more than a mere chameleon that slightly adapts its characteristics to the given case. As a total phenomenon its dominant tendencies always make war a paradoxical trinity – composed of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity… ; of the play of chance and probability… ; and of its element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to reason alone.”
– Carl von Clausewitz in On War
As von Clausewitz points out, the nature of war is ever-changing – which is why wargaming must change too, in order to prepare the warfighter for the conflicts of the future.
Looking ahead, ICT remains committed to harnessing the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and machine learning to further refine and enhance military training simulations. By integrating data-driven analysis, intelligent tutoring systems, and adaptive scenario generation, we aim to provide warfighters with the most effective preparation for the challenges of modern warfare.
As wargaming continues to evolve, ICT will remain at the forefront, ensuring that military personnel are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking capabilities necessary to navigate the complexities of future battlefields.
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