I get that Van Riper is an asshole. Even in the 90s he was a famous gaping asshole. So I regret to inform you the lightspeed motorcycle, missile bigger than the boat "Van Riper cheated to win" stuff is cope.
Van Riper was a lying cheat.
You're winning? That's news to the rest of us.
Oh yeah? Is that what we did? We countered Iranβs resurrecting ship capability?
Oh sweet goodness no. The Daily Wire passing on this trash is bad enough. PKVR had more to do with hubris than InOvAtIoN & dIsRuPtIon.
well, *that* article is a significant re-writing of what actually happened in that exercise Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
for context
warontherocks.com/2015/11/mill...
"24 years ago, Paul Van Riper sank our fleet on a computer screen, and a lot of very serious people in concrete rooms took notice. As a community, we studied his moves, debated their veracity, and then built systems to counter them."
In December, German newspaper Die Welt conducted a wargame simulating a Russian invasion of NATO, in partnership with military researchers at Helmut Schmidt University. Franz-Stefan Gady played as the commander of the Russian forces.
"This was not an operational game, not a game that was supposed to game out the military side of it. It was much more supposed to trigger a military crisis and focus on how the German government would respond to to it."
- Franz-Stefan Gady (defense analyst & adjunct senior fellow with CNAS)
"Operation Red Wolf students were required to apply Airman Leadership School (ALS) operational concepts in a simulated live-execution scenario. Working in assigned roles, students planned, maneuvered, and engaged opposing forces with mission completion being the objective."
This report by Michaela Gawrys presents the results of an ethnographic study of the sociocultural dynamics of the professional defense wargaming community and how institutional traditions, norms, and other cultural elements shape wargaming practices.
www.start.umd.edu/publication/...
"Welcome to the future with Disaster GamingCon, a convention that brings three unique communities together spanning emergency and disaster management, military & defense, and gaming enthusiasts."
- Dr Arthur J. Simental (CEO of Simental Industries)
"In December 2025, we analysed the events that transpired in the final game against real world trends. So far, 29% of our injects had either occurred, or similar events had occurred. And even more strikingly, 55% of the remaining future events were assessed as being βvery plausibleβ in near future."
Thank you to the @armchairdragoons.bsky.social for featuring the latest edition of my "Are we ready for AI-powered wargaming?" series in this week's #TuesdayNewsday ποΈ
Read the round-up: wargamingweekly.substack.com/p/are-we-rea... π€
Read the full #TuesdayNewsday: armchairdragoons.com/tn-022426/ π
βIf todayβs AI recommends nuclear strikes in simulated war games, then this tells us our programming hasnβt yet reached the sophistication of WOPR who opined,Β 'A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.'β
- Dr. Jim Purtilo, associate professor of computer science (University of Maryland)
"There are some indications that AI models do know when they are being tested and they then either try and play a little bit with the person that is testing them or they actually improve their performance and then kind of slump down.."
"The lesson there for me is that it's really hard to reliably put guardrails on these models if you can't anticipate accurately all the circumstances in which they might be used."
- Professor Kenneth Payne at King's College London
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"The reason I like it ("Battlegroup Clash: Baltics" by @jsbuckley.bsky.social) is because it teaches a lot about electronic warfare. It's in the context of a modern contemporary conflict but because it adds the electronic warfare and a lot of getting into your opponent's decision-making cycle..."
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"On a more sophisticated and unsettling level, the OPFOR now uses generative AI to flood the training area with disinformation, including deepfake voices β trained from online videos of speeches, public ceremonies, and so on β of the visiting commanders giving fake orders."
"What is written there is nonsense. I do not know the objectives of that war game β perhaps they are overly political, intended to show a threat or to educate their own public, German or other European citizens."
news.err.ee/1609935392/g...
Thank you to the Armchair Dragoons for giving my open letter to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth a hilarious feature in the latest #TuesdayNewsday π€£
Read the full letter here: wargamingweekly.substack.com/p/open-lette... βπΎ
Read the full #TuesdayNewsday: armchairdragoons.com/tn-021726/ π
I think that is a profound statement. During my career, wargaming did not exist for the enlisted ranks in any meaningful way. I was fortunate that I was able to be involved with MTWSS and some JANUS exercises that made me even more passionate than I was already. As much as we have doneβ¦we need more.
"Most importantly, wargaming provides a venue for demonstrated competence. It allows faculty and peers to observe how leaders think, decide, adapt, and lead when their ideas are challenged. Strategic leaders earn trust not through potential, but through performance."
