Track 7 – Network-Centric Experimentation and Applications Track 4 – Cognitive and Social Issues Track 6 – Metrics and Assessment

Geospatial Reasoning has been an essential aspect of military planning since the invention of cartography. Although maps have always been a focal point for developing Situational Awareness, the dawning era of Network Centric Operations brings the promise of unprecedented battlefield advantage due to improved geospatial situational awareness. Advanced Automated Geospatial Tools (AAGTs) are ubiquitous within current military forces and also civil and humanitarian organizations. Nevertheless, there is too little empirical evidence to quantify the military value of automated geospatial tools to the warfighter. As research and development efforts progress to bring forth the next generation of AAGTs, it is vital to inform the development process with sound empirical assessments of the military value of AAGTs within a Network Centric Environment. To this end, the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (TEC) is sponsoring a series of experiments to evaluate the value of its AAGT, the Battlefield Terrain Reasoning and Awareness – Battle Command (BTRA-BC) Tool. This paper discusses the scope of the current experiment, the hypotheses we intend to investigate, and the experimental design. Results of our first set of experiments will be provided in a later version of the paper.