08 December 2023

MASA evolves SWORD simulation system

by Giles Ebbutt

MASA's SWORD constructive simulation displayed at I/ITSEC 2023, with a general situation picture at the top, a range of KPI choices (bottom left), and the new web-based analytics dashboard (bottom right) showing crew states in different formats. (Giles Ebbutt)

French firm MASA has continued to refine its widely used SWORD constructive simulation system and outlined the latest developments at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) 2023 in Orlando.

Enrico Raue, MASA business development director, told Janes that the company had to develop some more peripheral capabilities for SWORD, particularly for analysis.

He said that the information extraction process had been completely reworked to permit more effective evaluation. Key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time, casualty levels, and ammunition expenditure were previously visible and available for analysis within SWORD. MASA has now developed a separate analytics module so that this information can be extracted and displayed on a new customisable web-based dashboard.

Raue said that this enables the data to be fed into external applications such as the Exonaut exercise management andassessment software from 4C Strategies, which is a popular choice for the control of command post exercises.

Raue also observed that where a command-and-control (C2) system is running in a web browser, the analytics module could be used to support course of action (COA) analysis. He cited as an example the SitaWare Headquarters C2 software, where plans created in this application could be run in SWORD and the results fed back on the analytic dashboard within the C2 system for evaluation.

MASA has also developed a Smart Layers function, which provides filtered information for after-actionreview, showing aspects such as force ratios at any given moment in the exercise.

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