The 15th NATO Operations Research & Analysis (OR&A) Conference Proceedings: Emerging and Disruptive Technology

The Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and the Science and Technology Organization co-hosted the 15th NATO Operations Research and Analysis (OR&A) Conference on 18 - 20 October 2021. The conference was held virtually due the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s conference theme was “Decision Advantage in The Information Age”. The Programme Committee encouraged the submission of any papers relevant to the theme, particularly decision making and analysis methods related to the NATO enterprise. Papers on other subjects describing emerging OR&A techniques as well as analytical case studies and best practices were also welcome. The annual OR&A conference serves as an integral component to the continuous development of the NATO OR&A Community of Interest. It builds upon previous conferences and workshops, and assembles esteemed members of the profession from across numerous organizations that include NATO commands and agencies, national defense analysis and research organizations, centers of excellence, academia, and industry.

Author(s): Josée van den Hoogen; Stephen Okazawa  

DOI: 10.14339/STO-SAS-OCS-2021-MS-01-2     |     ISSN: TBD  

The Canadian Army’s largest and most complex training exercise is Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE which occurs annually in the spring. Several thousand soldiers from Canada and allied countries participate in the exercise ensuring high readiness to deploy on operational missions. In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic imposed significant additional challenges on the exercise, particularly with the increasing prevalence of more-transmissible variants of the virus and the impending rollout of vaccines at the time of planning. In these circumstances, the potential magnitude of COVID-19's impact on the exercise was highly uncertain