Investigation into the usability of MSDL in South African C2 tactical simulations

The applicability and usability of the Military Simulation Definition Language (MSDL) is investigated in context of the South African air defence simulation community. A constructive, tactical command and control simulation environment used for acquisition decision support, concept evaluation and doctrine development support as part of a phased ground-based air defence procurement project is applied as test-case. This paper reports on the process followed, issues encountered and the outcome of translating the proprietary scenario definition format of the air defence simulation environment into an MSDL compatible one. Recommendations for both the MSDL community and developers of the South African air defence simulation environment are presented throughout the paper.