Sim Lets Army Practice Counterinsurgency Tactics

A computer game simulation in use at the Army School for Command Preparation trains users how to manage dangerous situations in hostile environments.

UrbanSim was created for the Army by the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies in response to a call for “SimCity for soldiers” writes The Atlantic. The training tool drops pairs of trainees into a virtual replication of the Iraqi city Al-Hamra’, and kicks off with 25.0 percent of the city's residents supporting coalition forces, 35.0 neutral and 40.0 percent against. Percentages will change as the trainees advance throughout their 15 allotted turns.

The sim’s worst player so far ended up with 70.0 percent of the town against him. As project manager Matthew Bosack explained, “He thought the only way to increase civil security was to go bust down people’s doors.”

The Institute is already working on a simulation set inside Afghanistan, which it hopes to have ready in the next few motnhs.


|Via Kotaku. Thanks Andrew|