Battle management language

A Battle Management Language (BML) is an unambiguous language used to:

* Command and control forces and equipment conducting military operations.
* Provide for situational awareness and a shared, common operational picture.

It can be seen as a standard representation of a digitized commander's intent to be used for real troops, for simulated troops, and for future robotic forces. BML is particularly relevant in a network centric environment for enabling mutual understanding.

A Coalition BML, as envisioned by this study group in this proposal, developed and applied by the all Services and by coalition members would not only allow interoperability among their C4ISR systems and simulations, but also among themselves.

As it is almost impossible to imagine a situation in the future when a single U. S. Service will be unilaterally employed, these efforts must be embedded into international standards. Because future military operations, and a significant amount of training, will be Joint in nature, it is critical that a Joint Service approach be taken to the BML development effort. The same issues that have driven the Army to embark on this program also confront the other Services as they develop both their C4ISR and simulation systems.

Coalition Battle Management Language

Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML, CBML) is under standardization by [http://www.sisostds.org SISO] in the [http://www.sisostds.org/index.php?tg=articles&idx=More&article=439&topics=102 C-BML Product Development Group] . C-BML is an unambiguous language to describe a commander’s intent, to be understood by both live forces and automated systems, for simulated and real worldoperations. The resulting language is intended to be applicable not only to simulation systems, but also tooperational command and control systems, and robotic systems. Within the last three years, multiple paperspresented at the [http://www.sisostds.org Simulation Interoperability Workshops (SIW)] have dealt with the need for, and initial work in,
Modeling & Simulation (M&S) to Command and Control (C2) Interoperability based on the use of unambiguousmission and task definitions. During the Spring 2004 SIW, a meeting of subject matter experts determined that adetailed evaluation of BML efforts at a Coalition level is necessary and subsequently drafted Terms of Reference(TOR) for a Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization ( [http://www.sisosdts.org SISO] ) Study Group. The TOR for the CoalitionBML (C-BML) Study Group was accepted by the SISO Standards Activity Committee and identifies the followingtasks:

• The Study Group shall conduct a Survey comprising as many international contributions applicable to theCoalition BML effort as possible.

• The Study Group shall develop a plan for how these various efforts can contribute to a common CoalitionBML specification within a methodological framework.

• The Study Group shall formulate a set of Recommendations for a Coalition BML Product DevelopmentGroup (PDG).

The Coalition BML Study Group was subsequently formed in September 2004 to address these tasks. The StudyGroup has conducted a number of face-to-face and teleconference meetings through the year since the Fall 2004SIW, involving a membership of over 100 persons from 11 different countries.

The 6 April 2006 A SISO [http://www.sisostds.org/index.php?tg=articles&idx=More&article=439&topics=102 C-BML Product Development Group] was constituated at [http://www.sisostds.org/index.php?tg=articles&idx=More&article=331&topics=8 Spring SIW 2006] .

=References= [http://www.movesinstitute.org/~blais/Documents/05F-SIW-041%20presentation.pdf C-BML overview] [http://www.movesinstitute.org/~blais/CoalitionBMLStudyGroup.htm]