Command and Control Course of Action (COA) Analysis Tool (COAST)

Missile defense remains a crucial component to protect the United States and her allies from potential threats. It is vital for the United States to adapt to changes in the global threat environment, maintaining an effective defensive capability and deterring future threat development. Combatant Commands (COCOMs) worldwide develop, evaluate, and refine courses of action (COAs) to adapt to such changing global threats, but have limited decision-support tools to effectively support planning and making informed requests for forces (RFFs). New decision-support tools are needed to enable: (1) flexible scenario creation to support the breadth of potential assets, threat conditions, and situational variations across the full spectrum of integrated air and missile defense; (2) quick COA evaluation at an appropriate level of fidelity; and (3) comparative analysis of the pros and cons of each COA option and provide justified, actionable recommendations. To support COA development and what-if analysis of alternative plans, we plan to design, develop, and evaluate a full-scope Course of Action Analysis Support Tool (COAST) prototype for missile defense. COAST provides planners with decision-support tools to rapidly construct scenarios, evaluate outcomes with a scalable simulation framework, and perform comparative analyses with a COA comparison tool to provide actionable recommendations.