Coalition Battle Management Language Extensions For Simulation Interoperability

This paper addresses the challenge of simulation and command and control interoperability for coalition forces. The Coalition Battle Management Language (CBML) is extended and harmonized with a simulation command and control data model, Primitives of Meaning (POM), using a Model Based Data Engineering Approach (MBDE). This yields a series of extensions to CBML. The first group of extensions allows execution of low-level tactical tasks such as mount a vehicle or orient in a particular direction. Additional extensions allow the specification of detailed execution instructions such as the speed and formation for movement or the posture (kneeling, prone, standing, etc.) for dismounted forces. The last extension allowed CBML orders to be executed by a person or a unit, as opposed to only by a unit. Using these extensions, a data translator developed in this work is able to receive a CBML order and issue it as a POM order. Using the US Army's Modeling Architecture for Testing, Research, and Experimentation (MATREX), the POM order was autonomously issued as a high level architecture (HLA) interaction for execution in the Army's One Semi-Automated Forces (OneSAF) combat simulation. In this manner, the simulation executed the CBML order issued by the command and control system directly, without any additional human interaction.