Wargaming in the British Army
Our speaker, Paul Beaves, has conducted wargaming within and for the British Army (amongst others) since 2008. In this talk he will discuss what professional wargaming is (and what it is not); the intellectual background to military wargaming; and his experiences of contemporary wargaming in the British Army.
He will cover some key historical uses of wargaming; wargaming through the Iraq-Afghanistan period; capability development and current wargaming for a new (old) NATO requirement, as well as professional wargaming for Army training.
Paul Beaves
Paul is an independent defence consultant who works with Army Headquarters, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), the Land Warfare Centre and Frontline Commands conducting force development and capability analysis. Paul began wargaming before joining the Army, and had he known a career could be made from it, he would have started sooner.
Prior to consulting Paul served in the Army for 16 years, initially as a tank commander, deploying to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, including the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2008 he was attached to DSTL as a Military Adviser, and began conducting professional wargaming. The subjects and techniques covered were diverse, from Surrogate Read teaming Counter improvised explosive devices in Iraq, to quantifying active vehicle protection as a balance of investment, developing Brigade and Divisional warfighting structures, Ajax (indeed) and what became Challenger 3.
Paul now delivers and takes part in wargaming for both training and capability development with the Field Army, DSTL and NATO, and has found a niche as a Russian Corps Commander, having acted in this role for every Army wargame since 2019.
