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Planning and Reconnaissance Tool

–holistic approach to mission planning and training

With its planning and reconnaissance tool (PET) the Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service has obtained an up-to-date tool for high-quality and efficient planning of its most important medi-cal treatment facilities for mission purposes, i.e. the modular medical facilities and the airtransportable medical facilities. In this connection the VIPER PET EDITION and PROFES-SIONAL programs further offer the possibility of a three-dimensional, geo-referenced repre-sentation for goal-directed planning. Together with other programs and databases a holistic and comprehensive approach was adopted which considers the challenges in connection with mission planning and the important questions concerning all these complex systems as well as the important training aspect.

The PET is designed in such a way as to flexibly integrate extensions and modifications into the system. In addition to these developments in the area of medical issues, it also provides a solution architecture for similar tasks outside the medical service. Thus the PET is also to be applied for the future planning of mobile field camps tak-ing into account the “force protection” aspect.

INTRODUCTION

The modular medical facilities are containerand tent-based medical treatment facilities which can provide the entire range of services from emergency surgery to multidisciplinary treatment in a field hospital. They are characterized by the tactical principle “tailored to mission” more than most other defense projects. The facilities’ capability to adapt to the scenario implies a challenge that is not just for the mission planners of modular medical facilities to deal with. The planning of all expeditionary military facilities is governed by a complex set of rules and must take the corresponding dependencies, limits and interfaces into account. The Planning and Reconnaissance Tool meets this specific mission planning challenge and offers a solution architecture that may also be applied to other military areas beyond the Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service.

THE PROBLEM:

Fielding the modular medical facilities has enabled the Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service to deploy medical facilities of different capabilities and sizes. The requirements on the mission planners increased with the size and complexity of the facilities. The fields of tactical operation, medical procedures, technical operation and work safety are just some of the key planning tasks. They are closely linked and influence each other. They demand a considerable knowledge of details and experience in handling the components to be planned. The large amount of material bound by the operations has so far made it impossible to gain general practical and mission planning experiences with the modular medical facilities. Initially it was attempted to plan structures with the help of Microsoft POWERPOINT.

These plans merely represented the facilities as Microsoft POWERPOINT does not offer a platform for generating certain aspects of planning such as homogeneity and scale or facilitate the automation of standard functions. Subsequently, the feasibility of CAD (Computer Aided Design) Systems was investigated. CAD offers a precise technical representation and drawings to scale, however the planning process involved an immense effort, took several weeks and required an extensive knowledge of CAD operations. Neither of the programs could adequately support the mission planners in their work as no underlying set of rules could be established which impeded a plausibility check.

Neither did it facilitate the training of the construction managers’ key tasks. So the requirement was a software-aided planning tool for the assembly of modular medical facilities for the users as well as a comprehensive approach that included training amongst other aspects. Furthermore, the new air-transportable medical facilities were to be integrated in the approach.

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