NETWARS HISTORY
LTG Buchholz, the Director for Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems, Joint Staff (J-6), initiated the NETWARS program in December 1996. He expressed concerns that the planned C4I systems, as envisioned in Joint Vision 2010 and other guiding documents, may experience a systematic collapse of the critical tactical information exchange processes when exposed to the unanticipated effects of full operational combat networks loading.
To address this concern, LTG Buchholz initiated an effort to develop a high-fidelity communications modeling capability to credibly model tactical communications demands with all the stresses and inefficiencies that combat places on communications system.
Based on the J-6 guidance, a C4I modeling and simulation technical working group with representatives from J-6, the Services, Department of Defense (DoD) Agencies, and private industry, met at the US Army's Signal Center, Ft. Gordon, Georgia, in January 1997 to assess existing communications modeling tools against the requirements and objectives. Following the three-day session, they chose the OPNET simulation environment as the tool of choice to baseline NETWARS.