CASSIE: Complex Adaptive System Strategy Interplay Environment

At the core of the Joint Force Air Component Commander's (JFACC) responsibilities is the need to understand the enemy, and the enemy's Courses of Action (COA) to enable successful operational decision-making and to develop a comprehensive air strategy for the Aerospace Operations Center (AOC). Effects-Based Operations (EBO) has widened the scope of the problem, requiring analysis of the enemy as part of a broader interconnected system. JFACC decision-making and blue COA development have typically been aided by analysts with expertise in enemy strategy, by wargaming, and more recently by computer simulation of enemy response or behavior. However, as Paul Davies writes "Current methods of analysis and modeling are inadequate for representing EBO.. Addressing the challenge will require changes of mindset, new theories and methods, and a new empirical base." (Davies, 2001) One solution is to use Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to create simulation models that portray friendly and adversary as a complex dynamic system with emergent counter-intuitive behavior. CASSIE - Complex Adaptive System Strategy Interplay Environment - provides the tool necessary to examine, predict, and learn potential enemy strategies and courses of action. CASSIE simulations will show the unexpected consequences that occur from interactions of blue and enemy strategies.