Case study in modeling and simulation validation methodology

The military develops simulations to analyze nearly every aspect of defense. How accurate are these simulations and to what extent do they produce dependable results? Most guidance available to DoD analysts provides broad recommendations geared towards management and coordination of the validation processes. Here, we focus on practical validation from the analyst's perspective in the form of a case study. The platform used is the theater missile defense (TMD) aspects of Extended Air Defense Simulation (EADSIM) and a new simulation called Wargame 2000. The focus is not to validate Wargame 2000 but to develop real, usable tools for analysis. Measures of effectiveness include defense battery search, engagement and intercept times against threat missiles. Insight is provided into developmental and data production issues making the validation process more effective and meaningful.