A simulation lets personnel rehearse dangerous situations and learn from mistakes that would be fatal in combat. Its results still depend on the rules and assumptions programmed into it. Better software cannot by itself establish that those assumptions reproduce how people and weapons behave under fire. The Falklands War provides a later comparison: wartime missile performance differed sharply from peacetime tests and advertising. That gap limits hindsight criticism of interwar planners, who could test extensively without reproducing wartime conditions.
Notable Point · 2:28:42-2:32:36
Simulations inherit assumptions that combat can overturn
Computer simulations allow safe rehearsal, but their programmed assumptions and peacetime test results still need to be judged against combat.