Fiscal Year	2023
Division	Research & Sponsored Programs
Department	Naval Research Program
Investigator(s)	Aros, Susan K. Baylouny, Anne M.
Sponsor	NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary	Under JIFCO funding and a previous NRP project the Crowd Dynamics Modeling Group at NPS has developed the Workbench for refining Rules of Engagement against Crowd Hostiles (WRENCH): a complex agent-based simulation environment that models security force interactions with civilian crowds. WRENCH incorporates needs, social modeling, and identity dynamics into an operational scenario that enables Commanders to explore the effects of using different intermediate force capabilities (IFC) under different rules of engagement (ROEs). In line with JIFCO objectives and efforts detailing actions in the Gray Zone, the main goal of this project is to gather information, develop insights, and guide recommendations for future enhancements to the WRENCH simulation model in the areas of IFC specifications and ROEs, and thereby increasing the fidelity of security force and crowd behavior. Such assessments are integral to meeting the challenges of avoiding civilian injury, specified in several recent DoD and Congressional memos. Our research will be carried out via reviews of relevant literature and available military documents along with discussions with military subject-matter experts (SMEs). We take a multi-pronged approach that includes coordinating with JIFCO to gather relevant documentation pertaining to IFCs, literature reviews on IFCs and usage, and discussions with field and SMEs on IFC usage and common ROEs. The results will inform improvements to the IFC weapons database for WRENCH and guide future improvements to WRENCH. We hypothesize that IFCs are not currently well integrated into usual ROEs in the field and that knowledge of their potential for civilians is not well known. Determining the validity and extent of this hypothesis is critical in achieving JIFCO's mission to incorporate IFCs in the field and decrease civilian injury.
Keywords	Agent-based modeling, non-lethal weapons, intermediate force capabilities, crowd management, crowd control, security force rules of engagement
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