DWE 10 Explores the Application of Emerging Technology to Warfighting Battle Command Functions
Tuesday, 09 February 2010 12:41
Adaptability and change are essential elements of today’s Army leader. Recent history has shown dynamic change in our enemies, the environment in which we fight (Operational Environment), and in our military leadership and their responses to these changes. Dynamic change is now the overarching constant that will continue well into the foreseeable future. In response, the greater military community has created various laboratories designed to perform experiments and gain insights into future concepts and capabilities. The purpose of the Battle Command Battle Laboratory – Leavenworth, located at Ft. Leavenworth is to effectively experiment with future leaders, concepts and emerging technology in order to gain insights required to fight tomorrow’s wars. Insights gleaned provide our military and civilian leaders with the data required to adapt and change doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, and facilities. The desired end state is to continuously provide results that serve to place and keep our military ahead of potential threats and proactively address changes in the post 9-11 environment.
Annually the Battle Command Battle Laboratory – Leavenworth and the Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) conduct a Digital Warfighting Exercise/Experiment. This annual training and experimental event immerses CGSC students in current and emerging digital technologies while performing corps and division military operations. The focus of this year’s experiment is to explore the human dimensions and aspects of battle command given a 2018 future operational environment. The experimentation effort will contribute significantly toward supporting Army transformation and provide critical observations and insights to pertinent Army organizations.
The digital technology used in current combat environments is command post of the future (CPOF). The students, at CGSC, will use this system to rapidly distribute and share up-to-date tactical and battle command information with their higher headquarters and between functional and coordinating staff sections. The simulation back-bone used to populate CPOF is Decisive Action, a turn-bases simulation that has been used in the event for several years. This program works with the CPOF technology to provide the students with a realistic “bottom-up” feed of unit location on the battlefield to include graphical overlays. The exercise is an ideal venue for showcasing the innovative training and battle command initiatives available for the students. During every experiment we strive to observe and collect data that will improve both our performance and our supporting technologies.
The Battle Command Battle Laboratory – Leavenworth is a thriving, premier experimentation facility that invites numerous scientists, scholars and subject matter experts to all of our experiments. If you have participated with our experiments previously, we thank you and invite you back. If you are interested in this year’s experiment or would like us to keep you informed on this or any of our other cutting edge experiments please contact Ms. Carol Markle via telephone at 913-684-7769, email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit our website at http://usacac.army.mil/blog/blogs/bcbl/default.aspx.
The Battle Command Battle Laboratory – Leavenworth: Experimenting with future concepts and technology to build a stronger military today and tomorrow!