ICONS Wargaming was formed in early 2026 as part of the development of ICONSnet 4.0 under a U.S. Department of Defense contract to create a wargaming innovation laboratory.
Military organizations, government agencies, think tanks, and other institutions that use wargames to explore strategy, test plans, and study decisions under uncertainty need a platform that can represent the complexity of today's conflicts, where outcomes are driven as much by information, influence, and human interaction as by force. They also need environments in which to test new tools and approaches: AI systems, computational models, alternative game designs, and other innovations that could change how wargames are built and run.
ICONS Wargaming offers this capability, building on more than four decades of ICONS's experience in designing and delivering wargames and Red Teaming exercises for clients across the U.S. national security establishment, including the Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, most of the Combatant Commands, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of State.
ICONSnet offers partners and clients the ability not only to run wargames but also to use them as test beds for:
- validating game designs,
- experimenting with AI and computational models against human players,
- conducting cross-game behavioral research, and
- connecting distributed participants across locations and time zones.
ICONS uses a simulation-based approach in which participants actively engage with complex scenarios — political-military crises, asymmetric and grey zone conflicts, resistance operations, hybrid threats, influence campaigns, and security cooperation — rather than simply briefing adjudicators through moves. These wargames can be offered in person or fully remotely, and all use ICONSnet 4.0, our advanced interaction and simulation platform. ICONSnet 4.0 is ideal for political-military, seminar, open, semi-open, social, and analytical games, and can be customized for rigid and matrix games. Its capabilities are offered entirely in service of enhancing the centrality of the human experience, which has been at the core of the ICONS team's expertise for over four decades. The platform can be customized for contexts requiring access to classified data or controlled unclassified information (CUI).
Partners and clients can use ICONSnet as a wargaming innovation laboratory to test innovations or deploy advanced capabilities in a wargaming context:
- Wargame designs. Run the same scenario with different designs and compare behavioral outcomes across iterations.
- AI systems. Experiment with AI-driven synthetic content, Red Team agents, and decision-support aids to learn how the technology performs and how players interact with it.
- Computational models. Integrate adjudication engines, population models, or data feeds to create more realistic operating conditions or test how decisions change under different model outputs.
- Behavioral research. Design controlled environments to study specific questions — responses to information pressure, decisions under different escalation conditions, coordination under asymmetry — and compare results across multiple runs.
- Decision making. Help teams and communities make decisions (how to allocate resources, which priorities to pursue), negotiate proposals, or simply understand circumstances before deciding.
- Multi-location and international games. Run games with participants in different cities or countries simultaneously, or asynchronously to accommodate different time zones and schedules.
Platform Capabilities
ICONSnet 4.0 is a flexible platform enabling wargaming, testing, and research.
- Live simulated information environment. ICONSnet simulates email, social media, news feeds, chat, negotiation tools, and other configurable channels. Players can engage in influence campaigns, counter-messaging, and competition over narratives, and facilitators can observe those moves as they happen.
- Asymmetric information by design. Each participant or team can be assigned a distinct identity with its own communication permissions and information access. Because permissions are defined at the platform level before the game begins, complex asymmetric designs — involving, for example, proxy relationships, layered command structures, information blackouts, or competing factional interpretations — are feasible at scale without manual management by game control.
- Integration with external models and AI systems. ICONSnet 4.0 can connect with force-adjudication engines, population dynamics models, AI-driven adversary systems, real-time data feeds, simulators, and other external infrastructure so player decisions can feed directly into models and model outputs can become live inputs to player decisions.
- Real-time behavioral data capture. All player communications, decisions, and actions are recorded and saved in real time, This data can be used for dashboard visualizations during a game, after-action reporting and analysis, model validation, or cross-game comparison for research programs.
Selected Past Work
ICONS has designed and run simulations and wargames for PACOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, SOCOM, SOCEUR, and SOCCENT, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, the Inter-American Defense Board, the United States Institute of Peace, the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and consultancies and crisis training firms. In some cases, unclassified ICONS simulations have served as the basis for follow-on classified wargames run by the National Intelligence Council. ICONS has also supported Track II dialogue projects with think tank partners and has designed training wargames for the Office of Personnel Management, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Defense College.
Getting Started
- Consultation. We begin by discussing your wargame objectives, design and logistical requirements, and methodological needs to determine how ICONS can best support your work and what the likely resource requirements will be.
- Configuration. We develop a custom wargame to fit your specific goals and needs and custom tools when needed. You focus on your mission; we handle the implementation.
- Support. We provide technical and methodological assistance from game development through the exercise and debrief.
To discuss a potential collaboration, contact icons@umd.edu or reach out to ICONS Director Dr. Robert D. Lamb.