The goal of “TacOpsMC” will be to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with an enhanced version of “TacOpsCav”, the current officially issued standard training device of the U.S. Army, adding new features and changes.
“TacOpsCav” is a military adaptation of the “TacOps v4” recreational computer game currently sold by www.battlefront.com. It supports multiplayer teamplay by allowing up to 19 players or spectators on up to 8 teams and an umpire to connect and fight the same battle online via TCP/IP or LAN. “TacOps v4” is available for PC and Mac.
The contact has three deliverables. The first deliverable is the existing U.S. Army “TacOpsCav” TDS recast with a USMC splash screen and USMC music. The first deliverable is due by the end of March 2003. The second and third deliverables will appear at roughly five month intervals thereafter and will be enhanced versions of “TacOpsMC” with new features and changes as specified by the USMC.
The contract statement of work indicates that “TacOpsMC” TDS is intended to train United States Marine Corps (USMC) Officers in combined arms operations. This project is being sponsored by the Marine Corps Engineer School so particular attention will be paid to training of Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 1302 Combat Engineer Officer and MOS 1371 Combat Engineer.
The contract also states that the objective of the “TacOpsMC” TDS is to develop a PC based, fast-paced, and tactically realistic computer-based simulation. The intent is for students, or the training audience, to be presented with a tactical situation for which they develop a plan. The students will then wargame their plan using the simulation, to provide feedback. The changing nature of the enemy will also force rapid decision- making. The simulation will be modeled to simulate the execution of combined arms operations at the Company and Battalion level and will cause the Engineer Officer to apply all of their critical thinking and decision- making skills while operating as a part of a simulated Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Repeated simulation play will enhance their skills as commanders and planners. The simulation can be played in a competitive free play mode to develop combat decision making skills. The simulation can also be used as part of a command post exercise scenario where planning is done prior to the simulation, then simulation data is used to provide feedback. Communications and Command and Control personnel can be trained using the command post exercise mode.