Fiscal Year	2023
Division	Research & Sponsored Programs
Department	Naval Research Program
Investigator(s)	Blais, Curtis L.
Sponsor	NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary	The Marine Corps is undergoing a transition from countering violent extremists to "great power/peer-level competition" and a return to its "historic role in the maritime littoral" (USMC Force Design 2030, March 2020, 2). The USMC recognizes that this transition demands a re-assessment of all aspects of its operations and in so doing has identified several shortfalls in current capabilities. New concepts, such as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) and Stand-In Forces (SIF) (USMC, A Concept for Stand-In Forces, December 2021) require new capabilities, tactics, techniques, and procedures. In turn, the Marine Corps needs analytical tools and techniques to understand implications of the new concepts and to explore alternative force structures and tactical operations. A key tool in the conduct of such studies is the Combined Arms Analysis Tool for the 21st Century (COMBATXXI), a combat simulation jointly developed by the U.S. Army and the USMC. To fully understand the operational planning considerations needed to implement EABO and SIF concepts, the Marine Corps needs better logistical representation in COMBATXXI. The objective of this study is to perform detailed research to evaluate the efficacy of COMBATXXI as a tool for modeling logistics operations relevant to the new concepts, to identify gaps, and to make recommendations on possible solutions. The objective highlights the core of the research methodology: examine the logistics requirements of the new USMC warfighting concepts against the capabilities of COMBATXXI and, where such capabilities are found wanting, determine how best to improve those capabilities to better support emerging USMC studies. Study deliverables include NRP-required products (executive summary, poster) and a technical report detailing the work performed (study methodology, identified requirements, analysis of COMBATXXI capabilities, identified gaps, and recommended changes to the model to address the identified gaps).
Keywords	Modeling, Logistics, Analysis
Publications	Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data	Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal