As Warfare Evolves Virtual Wargaming Opens Up New Avenues For Militaries

 June 10, 2026

By EurActiv

By Kjeld Neubert

(EurActiv) — In a conference room opposite NATO headquarters last week, Lockheed Martin demonstrated what it believes is the future of wargaming: the ability to test battlefield decisions quickly and in a risk-free environment.

There were no tedious Excel sheets, no physical maps on large conference room tables, and no troops or equipment that had to be moved, which typically requires weeks, if not months, of planning.

Instead, as in a video game (the imagery, courtesy of the gaming animation platform Unreal Engine, only reinforces that fact), military units moved across a chain of islands in the southwest Pacific.

In one scenario, defenders relied heavily on long-range ATACMS missiles to repel an amphibious assault. They inflicted losses but failed to stop enemy troops from reaching shore.

In a second run-through, commanders employed longer-range Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) and improved sensing capabilities. This time, the assault is defeated before landing forces reach the beach.

The exercise is part of ACES, a modelling and simulation platform designed by Lockheed Martin to help military planners test operational decisions, assess outcomes and refine tactics without conducting costly field exercises.

“Now is the time to just go faster. And modelling and simulation is going to allow them to do that,” Raashi Quattlebaum, vice-president at Lockheed Martin, told Euractiv.

She argued that the rapid evolution of modern warfare, from drones to electronic warfare and long-range precision strikes, necessitates armed forces to change how they have “done training for so many years”.

A new capability 

Such digital tools can also “absolutely” replace some of the on-the-ground training for the military, Quattlebaum claimed.

Large-scale real-life training exercises take weeks and months to plan. NATO’s multi-domain training exercises, such as Cold Response in the Arctic, can take over a year to complete. That makes them slow and rare.

Digital modelling and simulation technology can now incorporate the real-world specifications of any weapon system, enabling military leaders to run an unlimited number of what-if scenarios.

Extensive reports are then generated, delivering conclusions on why certain outcomes occurred and how they could be changed.

For European militaries seeking to improve coordination and preparedness, as the US starts rotating troops and equipment out of the region to pivot towards other theatres, the technology could also provide a way to test multinational operations and logistics chains.

A scenario could, for instance, examine how ammunition supplies would reach the frontlines weeks into a conflict.

Quattlebaum added that the analyses could enable officials to identify potential capability gapsand support “their long-term modernisation decisions”.

“Europe would be able to improve all of their coordination, all of their communication, common operational understanding, and they’ll be able to synchronise all of their assets together across countries,” Quattlebaum said.

On the other side of the street, NATO seems to have assimilated that lesson. Last month, it conducted a week-and-a-half-long computer-assisted command post exercise, the first to include the Allied Command Operations headquarters.

Steadfast Deterrence 2026 was “designed to replicate the complexities in the Arctic and the High North, integrating real-world plans, cutting-edge simulation technologies and AI-enabled warfighting platforms,” Major General Ruprecht von Butler, the commander of NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre (JWC), said in a statement.