SSM (Simple Surface Warfare Model) digital wargame platform

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description

A Swedish Defence University digital, map-based naval tactics wargame in which opposing teams maneuver units, manage sensors and weapons, and solve increasingly complex scenarios in real time.

Components

• SSM (Simple Surface Warfare Model) digital wargame platform for teaching naval tactics: The Simple Surface Warfare Model (SSM) is a proprietary digital wargame of the Swedish Defence University used in navy and marine tactics courses. The article describes it as "a digital map-based platform, in which a variety of scenarios can be set up", with military units maneuvered in real time and players deciding on sensors and weapons. Games are played by two opposing sides in continuous time, feature fog of war with a dynamically updated situational picture projected on a classroom wall, and range from roughly three-hour small games to multi-week exercises engaging up to 50 students in multilayered task structures. (Sjöblom et al. (2025))

Claims

• In post-wargaming debriefings, teachers and students delineate tactics from related areas of military competence such as teamwork, communication, and technology [+W]
• Teachers construe tactical reasoning as a generalizable, transferable skill, using the educational design of wargames to downplay concern with realism [+W]
• Teachers actively highlight specific in-game actions as examples of tactical decision-making, including distinguishing sound tactical reasoning from negative outcomes [+W]
• Students appropriate the concept of tactics in their own post-game reasoning through thematization of general principles and framing performance in terms of creating dilemmas for the opponent [+W]

Related Products and Programmes

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Key Sources

• Sjöblom, B., & Lymer, G. (2025). Conceptual socialization in debriefing: tactics as an object of knowledge in wargame interactions. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-025-09717-8

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	ssm-simple-surface-warfare-model-digital-wargame-platform
title	SSM (Simple Surface Warfare Model) digital wargame platform
description	A Swedish Defence University digital, map-based naval tactics wargame in which opposing teams maneuver units, manage sensors and weapons, and solve increasingly complex scenarios in real time.
status	review
product_kind	software
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-18
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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