Extensible Battle Management Language as a Transformation Enabler

This article addresses a new approach to the longstanding problem of interoperating military command and control with combat simulations. There is great potential benefit in such a capability, both for more effective training and as a “what if” capability during military operations. The authors describe the Battle Management Language (BML), an unambiguous means of describing military operations to people, simulations, and robotic forces. The process that developed the BML and its extension into the realm of Web services are described. The new capability is projected to be an enabler for the ongoing transformation activities in the U.S. Department of Defense. Integrated with the Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model (C2IEDM), BML, as extended through Web services, provides a path to improved interoperability within and among U.S. military services and their allied/coalition partners.