Functional Categories of Support to Operations in Military Information Systems

TL;DR

This paper categorizes and extends the functional support requirements for military information systems across three domains, emphasizing their application in various operational contexts and providing migration strategies for legacy systems.

Contribution

It defines and extends functional categories for support in military information systems from wartime to other operations, including simulation modules and migration procedures.

Findings

Functional categories for C2 assessment are established for Article 5 operations.

Extensions are proposed for operations other than war (OOTW).

Examples of simulation modules supporting these functions are provided.

Abstract

In order to group the functional requirements for support to operations by modern information systems systematically, the NATO Code of best Practise (COBP) for C2 Assessment defines three domain areas: Battlespace Visualization, Decision Making, and Battle Management Functions. In addition, within an domain overlapping information grid of the information system, necessary functions for assessing and disseminating the information are capsulated. For all three domains, including the overlapping information grid, the respective requirements for functional support have to be met be future command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) systems. The paper describes the functional categories of the three domains having been defined for article 5 operations, extends them to meet the requirements for operations other than war (OOTW), and gives some examples how modules of simulation systems can deliver respective support functions. In addition, references defining migration procedures for legacy systems to enable a smooth change from the old to the new C3I paradigm are given.