Adding Reports to Coalition Battle Management Language for NATO MSG-048
conference paper
The NATO Modeling and Simulation Group Technical Activity 48 (MSG-048) was chartered in 2006 to
investigate the potential of a Coalition Battle Management Language for multinational and NATO interoperation of
command and control systems with modeling and simulation. Its initial work in defining and demonstrating a basic
capability for this purpose has been reported in previous Euro-SIW papers. This paper addresses Phase 2 of the
Technical Activity which expanded the BML paradigm by adding C2 Reports, enabling two-way flow of information
between C2 and simulation systems. The new capability was demonstrated at the InterService/Industry Training,
Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) 2008. The demonstration configuration combined three national C2
systems and three national simulations along with middleware from two other nations. The result was a generic C2-
simulation linkage with no humans in the information exchange loop. This was achieved in only four months, using a
network-enabled development approach with an Internet Reference Implementation combined with a powerful
development environment based on a C2 Lexical Grammar graphical user interface for inspection of the exchanged
information, plus a scripted approach for rapid development of expanded BML Web services. This paper provides a
description of the BML Reports and the enhanced development methodology to support expansion of the BML concept
in general and the work of the SISO C-BML Product Development Group in particular. We conclude with a projection
of the work of MSG-048 in 2009, which focuses on operational validation of the C-BML concept.
investigate the potential of a Coalition Battle Management Language for multinational and NATO interoperation of
command and control systems with modeling and simulation. Its initial work in defining and demonstrating a basic
capability for this purpose has been reported in previous Euro-SIW papers. This paper addresses Phase 2 of the
Technical Activity which expanded the BML paradigm by adding C2 Reports, enabling two-way flow of information
between C2 and simulation systems. The new capability was demonstrated at the InterService/Industry Training,
Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) 2008. The demonstration configuration combined three national C2
systems and three national simulations along with middleware from two other nations. The result was a generic C2-
simulation linkage with no humans in the information exchange loop. This was achieved in only four months, using a
network-enabled development approach with an Internet Reference Implementation combined with a powerful
development environment based on a C2 Lexical Grammar graphical user interface for inspection of the exchanged
information, plus a scripted approach for rapid development of expanded BML Web services. This paper provides a
description of the BML Reports and the enhanced development methodology to support expansion of the BML concept
in general and the work of the SISO C-BML Product Development Group in particular. We conclude with a projection
of the work of MSG-048 in 2009, which focuses on operational validation of the C-BML concept.
TNO Identifier
273967
Article nr.
09E-SIW-003
Source title
2009 Euro Simulation Interoperability Workshop - Euro SIW, July 13-16, 2009, Istanbul, Turkey.
Pages
15-25