Coalition Battle Management Language

Abstract : Battle Management Language (BML) is being developed as an unambiguous language to command and control forces and equipment conducting military operations and to provide for situational awareness and a shared common operational picture. BML is being designed as a standard representation of a "digitized commander's intent" to be used for real troops, for simulated troops, and for future robotic forces. A US Army BML prototype was used in the UK to analyze the applicability of these concepts to UK doctrine. A French Army BML has also been prototypically implemented in France, independently from - but well aware of - the US prototype. A study group on coalition applicability of such concepts has been initiated. Three views are necessary to describe BML: (1) A Doctrine View -- BML must be aligned to doctrine; (2) A Representation View -- BML must model these aspects in a way that can be interpreted and processed by the underlying heterogeneous information technology systems of the coalition; (3) A Protocol View - BML must specify the underlying protocols for transferring BML information between the participating systems. This paper will give an introduction to BML for the study group members, will show the areas already being worked on, and will present the initial scope of the work to be done.