Wednesday, September 27, 2017
What is it?
Operation Overmatch is a gaming environment within the Early Synthetic Prototyping (ESP) effort. ESP is a capability that engages Soldiers across the Army for their feedback and recommendations early in the development cycle.
The purpose of Operation Overmatch is to connect Soldiers with capability developers and engineers across the Army, allowing unconstrained early exploration of ideas at the small-unit level.
Analysis of the results informs engineers and capability developers on which capabilities have the greatest potential for further study in the future operational environment.
What is the Army doing?
Results of collaborative research efforts indicate that computer-based games have significant potential to provide an effective means to conduct ESP in order to evaluate future capabilities. In 2016, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Army Capabilities Integration Center partnered with U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command and the Army Game Studio to develop Operation Overmatch.
Operation Overmatch will be available to everyone with a dot-mil email address and will provide a means for every Soldier in the Army to contribute to the development of the future force.
What continued efforts are planned for the future?
The beta test version of Operation Overmatch is set to launch Oct. 10, 2017. The purpose of the beta test is to solicit Soldier feedback about Operation Overmatch, gauge Soldier interest and participation, and assess the value of Soldier feedback to support capability development. The game will be available through Steam, a popular online game distribution platform.
The Army will continue to enhance Operation Overmatch by adding additional capabilities and enriching the gaming environment.
Why is this important to the Army?
Operation Overmatch is designed to shape the future force through Soldier feedback. This gaming environment provides the Army with a means of rapidly exploring a wide range of potential capabilities.
The ability to test capabilities in virtual environments is not intended to replace experimenting with actual prototypes in field conditions. Instead, ESP complements existing processes by producing data and analytics to inform capability developers and engineers before an actual system is put into production.
Operation Overmatch enables Soldiers to explore and turn ideas into valued outcomes. These outcomes will, in turn, inform the development of the future force. Operation Overmatch allows unconstrained early exploration of ideas without real-world consequences and will enable the Army to innovate faster.
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