This War Strategy Video Game Has a Very Special Player: The Pentagon

Based in Epsom, 18 miles south of London in the United Kingdom, Slitherine Software is a video game developer that isn’t widely known to the general public. Founded in 2000, it’s a family-run company specializing in war strategy video games.

In 2016, J.D. McNeil, the founder and father of the McNeil family, received an unusual call from the U.S. Department of Defense. Initially, he thought it was a joke and asked if the callers were messing with him. They weren’t. American officials were genuinely interested in his game Command: Professional Edition, which is inspired by Tom Clancy’s novels and distributed by Matrix Pro Sims.

The Pentagon representatives were particularly drawn to the extensive database of aircraft, ships, missiles, and other military equipment featured in the game. This rich array of elements allows for highly accurate modeling of warfare conflicts.

In fact, many military commanders have begun to view video games as serious tools for training and strategy. Pete Szabo, a retired Air Force Air Mobility Command colonel, said that he started using Command: Professional Edition in 2017 to model the fuel consumption of military aircraft during war simulations. He described the game as “a very powerful tool,” although it initially took time to persuade his superiors of its value.

Tim Barrick, a retired Marine colonel and current professor at Marine Corps University, used the game to simulate conflicts in the Pacific. He told The Wall Street Journal, “These are not simple problems.” Having previously worked at the Warfighting Lab, which is dedicated to war game simulations, Barrick found the Slitherine Software game to be particularly interesting.

The Pentagon’s interest in Command: Professional Edition has been so significant that, in 2020, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed AI models specifically designed to play this video game. The project evokes memories of the classic film WarGames (John Badham, 1983), in which a young hacker gains access to an AI system created for continuous war game simulations.

Command: Professional Edition, which has a user base of approximately one million players worldwide, has been adopted by various military agencies. According to the product’s website, it’s utilized by the “U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps,” as well as the Royal Australian Air Force, among others. This is certainly surprising.

Image | Slitherine Software

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