Southwick Park: New wargaming hub 'to change UK defence culture'

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has formally launched its first centre for tactical wargaming.

The Defence Experimentation and Wargaming Hub is based at Southwick Park in Hampshire, where the D-Day landings were partly planned.

The centre uses board games and digital technology to test strategies in scenarios including military conflicts, cyber-attacks and economic coercion.

The hub aims to change UK defence culture, MoD recruiters have said.

Job advertisements for key roles at the hub, due to start on 1 April, say: "We aim at addressing Defence's immediate wargaming capacity and capability shortfalls while also promoting a culture shift within Defence to use wargaming more effectively at all levels and to encourage challenge."

Staff from the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and Civil Service will work at the hub, which was initially established in September 2023.

Games include 'Hope and Glory' which focuses on infrastructure threats and 'Contested' which deals with high-level military strategy.

The site is close to the Defence Wargaming Centre which is already operated by the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), a government agency, at Portsdown West.

The MoD said the hub, working with DSTL, marked "the start of a new era in Defence strategy and innovation".

The hub's chief of staff, Lt Col Tom Ellen, said it would "engender a culture of experimentation, wargaming and development".

The MoD previously announced it would sell the remainder of its Southwick Park estate in 2031.

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