The hysteria is overdone. War games bind blue force hand and foot, give red force superhero abilities.
One example was the Iranian navy sinking a carrier battle group. A naval aviator dismissed the result as nonsense for the reasons outlined below:
Van Rippers wargame is a frequent subject of humorous derision in the wardroom. He launched C-801s from 360cc dirtbikes that towed them into position per the rules he himself wrote. Look up the weight on one of those batteries.
Ripper had completely unbreakable comms (he handed notes to his chief of staff and that was the totality of his kill chain) while instantly and effortlessly breaking all blue force comms and knowing exactly where mother and the air wing were at all times (because he ran the exercise from blue force CIC). Lucky!
Since he knew second by second the exact tactical state of all blue forces, he could launch his main effort precisely when the CSG turned into the wind for flight quarters after the flight leads had launched but not the rest of the sections. Then he dispatched hundreds of Boghammers and changed the simulation rules to allow them to carry 4xSS-22Ns, an enormous soviet missile, which would capsize a boghammer even in steady seas (as in one single one would) and which Persia posses none of, so the blue force planners obviously did not account for. Also for “reasons” the flock of 400 boghammers was somehow not spotted by submarine pickets, the DDG sentries, CAP, I&W, literally anyone. Magic.
He was fired almost instantly by the DoD for wasting government resources on an idiotic simulation that proved nothing but to stroke his own ego. Millennium Challenge is one of those litmus tests to see how much actual naval experience someone has based on their views upon it. It’s a hilarious boomer trap.
If it makes you feel better, other room temperature IQ boomers believed the exercise at face value without ever talking to JOs who were a part of it
And used it to justify the LCS and DDG-1000. People like you have made our Navy substantially weaker based on your credulousness and lack of military experience]
His point was that the results of the exercise had already been determined.
And are you familiar with with distinction between paper war games, and a real submarine, really penetrating a real anti submarine screen, to get a firing solution on a real aircraft carrier?