MISSION
The goal of JLASS is to promote the joint professional military education of all
participants by addressing key issues at the strategic and operational levels of
war. JLASS enhances and expands participants’ awareness of combined/joint staff
and unified command issues by employing joint forces to execute national and theater
level strategies. It prepares joint war fighters by providing the opportunity to
develop, apply, and adjust theater strategies.
Naval War College senior students who participate in the JLASS elective take the
Joint Military Operations Phase II core course during the fall trimester and the
Theater Strategic Planning—the Pacific elective (FE-535A). The electives WE-535B
and SE-535C reinforce the theater-strategic planning Phase II Joint Professional
Military Education requirements covered in the JMO core curriculum. These three
elective courses collectively build upon the concepts introduced in the core Joint
Military Operations course.
JLASS involves distributed planning with the other Senior Level Colleges (SLCs)
and culminates in a futuristic, two-sided, computer-supported wargame played at
the Air Force Wargaming Institute (AFWI), at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. The six SLCs
play appropriate U.S. and combined Blue forces. Students are thrust into the roles
of theater supported and supporting commanders in a multiple contingency scenario
in Asia Pacific. Students analyze, plan and issue orders according to the Joint
Operations Planning and Execution System (JOPES) in the context of Joint Crisis
Action Planning. The exercise phase consists of a five-day war game in which the
students execute their campaign plan developed during the distributed planning phase
and employ joint forces at the strategic and operational level to support national
and theater level strategies.
JLASS is a Naval War College theater campaign planning elective course, which is
linked to the following six SLCs:
- The US Army War College (USAWC)
in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
- The Naval War College (College of Naval
Warfare) (CNW) in Newport, Rhode Island
- The Air War College (AWC) in Montgomery,
Alabama
- The Marine Corps War College (MCWAR)
in Quantico, Virginia
- The Industrial College of the Armed Forces
(ICAF) in Washington, DC
- The National War College (NWC)
in Washington, DC
BACKGROUND
The Army and Air Force sponsored a series of computer-assisted simulations called
CARMAX (for Carlisle and Maxwell) from 1983–1985. CARMAX played the Air-Land Battle
in the Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) area of responsibility. The U.S. Army
War College (USAWC) and the Air War College (AWC) conducted the exercise simultaneously
using a microcomputer interface for communication. The CARMAX project improved mutual
understanding between the Army and Air Force war colleges regarding joint service
procedures, doctrine, and operations. Portions of the CARMAX simulation were incorporated
into exercises within the core curricula of both colleges. By 1985, CARMAX had achieved
its objectives, and a new series of exercises evolved to include sea and space along
with air and land dimensions.
The new series was called Joint Land Aerospace Sea Simulation (JLASS) and was sponsored
by the SLCs from 1986–1988. Exercises in this series included April 1986 (Central
Europe) in a partially distributed exercise; April 1987 (Korean Peninsula) at the
Naval War College; and May 1988 (Korean Peninsula) at the Air Force Wargaming Institute
(AFWI). A second series of JLASS games was agreed upon for the next five years,
1989–1993, and a third series for the years 1994–1998. All exercises in these series
were conducted at AFWI within a Pacific theater of war scenario. Enhancements made
during this series included: expanded Special Operations forces play (assisted by
the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School), expanded logistics
play (supported by the Industrial College of the Armed Forces), the addition of
the Marine Corps War College as an exercise participant, and distributed war gaming
via video teleconferencing.
The current exercise series continues JLASS at the AFWI. The game is constantly
refined and adapted to the changing strategic environment to offer the best possible
joint operational level/educational level gaming experience.
OBJECTIVES
The overall goal of the JLASS war game is to enhance joint professional military
education through an exercise that examines potential U.S. military responses to
regional crises. This exercise focuses on joint and multinational warfare, primarily
at the operational and strategic levels. The following objectives support this goal:
- Promote joint education through an active learning process addressing issues at
the strategic and operational levels of war
- Translate national security and military strategy/objectives into theater campaign
plans
- Enhance and expand awareness of Joint Staff and unified command issues through
the application of joint forces in support of national and theater level strategies
involving multinational and interagency partners
- Exercise operational art during joint campaign planning and execution of a theater
strategy
- Develop insights into information age operations
- Integrate all elements of national power
- Design and exercise theater command and control processes and relationships.
- Apply an understanding of U.S. military force structure, its capabilities and limitations
- Comprehend the challenges facing a joint and multinational force employing future
military and commercial systems in the 21st century.
METHODOLOGY
The principle methodology of the course is seminar discussion emphasizing an active
learning environment. The course builds upon concepts from history, strategy, naval
and military operations, decision-making, and gaming theory, as well as the professional
experience of students and moderators. A tough-minded, questioning attitude and
student willingness to enter into a rigorous discussion are central to the success
of the course.
The course will focus on preparing seminar members to function effectively as members
of the U.S. Pacific Command staff. The course offers a combination of structured
instructional sessions and planning time devoted to preparing JLASS war game plans
and emphasizes active learning through the preparation of plans and orders that
will be subsequently executed in the JLASS war game. A novel feature of the course
is the opportunity to interact with students from the other SLCs through video teleconferencing
and student conferences, as well as the week-long interactive phase during exercise
play at Maxwell AFB.
CURRICULUM
FE-535A: College of Naval Warfare students who take the Theater
Strategic Planning - the Pacific elective, also participate in the Joint Land, Aerospace,
and Sea Simulation (JLASS) electives in the winter and spring. This fall elective
is designed to give the JLASS students a better understanding of the strategic issues
impacting security in the Pacific and should facilitate regional planning that will
be conducted during the next semester elective where the JLASS students produce
a theater estimate and security cooperation plan for PACOM (based on a future World
Summary written ten years out).
-- Fall trimester: 10 sessions over ten weeks.
FE-535B: This elective focuses on the development of Theater Security
Cooperation (TSCP). It examines the TSCP planning process and assists in the comprehension
of the linkages of national security strategy, national military strategy, and theater
strategy. This elective also enables students to examine a Combatant Commander’s
Theater Security Cooperation Plan (TSCP) and how it is developed from national level
guidance. Students use the annual JLASS World Summary to develop PACOM Theater Strategic
Cooperation Plan that will be briefed to a JLASS Senior Mentor during the first
two weeks of January each year.
-- Winter trimester: 10 sessions over ten weeks.
FE-535C: The students, acting as members of U.S. Pacific Command,
develop a campaign plan for joint and multinational operations in the Pacific Theater.
Students brief the Campaign Plan to the Provost of the Naval War College or the
JLASS senior mentor in April each year. Teams from CNW and the other SLCs will exercise
the plan in a one-week, two-sided, computer-assisted war game to be played at Maxwell
AFB, Montgomery, Alabama, in mid-April.
-- Spring trimester: 7 sessions and one-week war game over eleven weeks.
The overall goal of the three JLASS elective series is to build on the core curriculum
of the College of Naval Warfare and thus develop theater strategic planners.
CONTACT
The College of Naval Warfare (CNW) JLASS Seminar is looking for August arrival (June
graduate) students with expertise in any of the following areas:
Operations
Planning
Intelligence
Strategic Communications
Information Operations
Security, Stability, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations
Naval Ops (Air, Subsurface, and Surface)
Land Operations
Air Operations
Special Operations
Interagency/Civil-Military Operations
Logistics
If you have any of these skills, ability to work with a team, and individual motivation
please sign up for FE/WE/SE 535—Joint Land Aerospace and Sea Simulation (JLASS).
The JLASS Course Director may be contacted at 401-841-7361 and the JLASS Lead Moderator
may be contacted at 401-841-7297.
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