Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) Phase 1 Specification Development Progress: An Update to the M&S Community / Paper 08F-SIW-005

Abstract

The Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) is an emerging standard for expressing and exchanging plans, orders, and reports across command and control (C2) systems, modeling and simulation (M&S) systems, and robotic systems. In March 2006, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) approved initiation of a Product Development Group (PDG) to generate C-BML specification and guidance documents. The PDG laid out a 3-phase development effort: (1) Phase 1 will specify a sufficient data model to unambiguously define a set of military orders using the Joint Command, Control, and Consultation Information Exchange Data Model (JC3IEDM) as a starting point; (2) Phase 2 will develop a formal grammar (lexicon and production rules) to formalize the definition of orders, requests, and reports; and (3) Phase 3 will develop a formal battle management ontology to enable conceptual interoperability across software systems. Progress on development of the C-BML Phase 1 Specification was reported by the C-BML Drafting Group to the PDG at the Spring 2008 Simulation Interoperability Workshop (SIW). During that meeting, PDG members stated a number of different positions regarding the required scope of the Phase 1 Specification. The discussions resulted in a motion to initiate a Tiger Team effort to clarify the various positions and to recommend a way forward for completion of the Phase 1 Specification and Guidelines documents. This paper updates the M&S community on the work and findings of the Tiger Team.