Planning and Conducting Computer Assisted Exercises During a Pandemic

2020 was a year that changed the world completely, forced everyone to think outside of the box and the effects, as well as the results, are still to be measured. While facing several countries’ lockdowns, planning and conducting a multinational computer assisted exercise (CAX) during a pandemic seemed nearly impossible. By taking extreme measures, developing a new architecture model for a CAX and relying on the training audience’s will to be trained, NATO managed to overcome all the constraints and successfully conducted the exercise Loyal Leda 2020. This paper will not only give details about the new CAX architecture concept that supported the execution phase of the exercise, but will also explain the exercise planning process (EPP) behind it.