Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Digital Experience

The Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Digital Experience simulates the strategy behind military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions in a digital environment, resulting in a faster, more accessible version.

Outcomes and Additional Information

• The ISR game is a competitive, team‑based strategy game in which two teams race to build the shortest safe strike path to the opponent’s Main Headquarters (HQ). The objective is to build a safe, optimal strike path from the neutral zone to the enemy Main HQ while avoiding all Points of Interest (POIs) such as defensive systems, airfields, communication nodes, and cities. 

• The game teaches ISR decision‑making skills by requiring players to uncover hidden threats and navigate a hex‑grid battlespace.

• The simulation requires the player to apply the imaging, signal, and cyber intelligence tools to the digital game board to gather information and deduce the location of enemy points of interest (headquarters, cities, surface-to-air missiles, etc.). After identification, the player will form a strike path to the opposing main headquarters, attempting to avoid defenses. 

• A major improvement in the digital version is the ISR Log, the central game function where players select ISRs and record what they deployed over the four rounds. 

  1. • After choosing an ISR, players are prompted to select the region for deployment to either a sector or a neighboring region, depending on the ISR type. 

     • Once four ISRs have been selected, the tiles containing the corresponding points of interest are automatically highlighted on the map. 

     • Players can then return to the ISR log at any time to review previous deployments and the tiles that were detected. 

     • The ISR Log is a streamlined version of the original ISR Reporting sheet, which relied on a manual pen‑and‑paper selection process and a human mediator to relay detected tiles.

• Eventually, the simulation will be applied to ISR classes in various universities and air bases, training analysts on the broader strategic scope of their work.

• Future work will include a multi-player option, additional strike packages, and resource costs.