Advances in Systems and Technologies Toward Interopoerating Operational Military C2 and Simulation Systems

Since 2003, a community focused on interoperation of command and control C2 systems with simulation systems has developed a new area of technology known as Battle Management Language BML. Their vision is a future where military organizations can link their C2 and simulation systems, without special preparation, in support of coalition operations. This paper reports on systems and technology developments of the last ten years, which have made great progress toward achieving that vision, as part of the work of the NATO Modeling and Simulation Group MSG. The technology used in these projects to achieve effective operational use of C2 with interoperating simulations is based around a shared understanding of information, defined in an XML schema and implemented in each participating system. Interoperation is facilitated by an agreed upon definition of the information to be shared, recently supported by two coordinated standards Military Scenario Definition Language MSDL and Coalition Battle Management Language C-BML. The paper will review the history and current status of systems and technologies, including the standards, C2 systems, simulation systems, and server systems employed. The conclusion addresses next steps to achieve operational deployment, based on emerging commercial products and military systems.