The Electronic Battle Box Denis Gouin Defence Research & Development Canada

2 EBB Background The Battle Box –Suitcase used by Army in the field Staff officers’ handbooks (SOH) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Field manuals Military planning in the field –Understanding of organizations, equipment, resources –Complex calculations –Time consuming / labor intensive

Defence Research & Development Canada 3 EBB Objectives Provide an electronic version of the Army battle box –Doctrinal documents, SOPs and SOHs Provide an integrated suite of planning tools –ORBAT & Equipment browsers –Task Planner / Scheduler –Logistics Planner –Movement Planners ELECTRONIC BATTLE BOX National Defence Défense Nationale

Defence Research & Development Canada 4 Stakeholders National Defence Défense Nationale Directorate of Army Doctrine Directorate of Land Requirements G4 Staff of 1 Cdn Div

Defence Research & Development Canada 5 The EBB Binder

Defence Research & Development Canada 6 The EBB Binder Definition of ORBATs and equipment Definition of plans and tasks Logistic planning related to the plans and tasks Movement planners (road, rail and air)

Defence Research & Development Canada 7 EBB Equipment Browser Browsing of equipment categories Tree-view representation Search tool Display of collateral imagery Equipment Browser

Defence Research & Development Canada 8 EBB Equipment Browser Equipment Browser

Defence Research & Development Canada 9 EBB ORBAT Browser Browsing of doctrinal Orbats Tree-view and Orgchart representations Control over the displayed information Display of resources ORBAT Browser

Defence Research & Development Canada 10 EBB ORBAT Browser ORBAT Browser

Defence Research & Development Canada 11 EBB ORBAT Browser ORBAT Browser

Defence Research & Development Canada 12 EBB Task Scheduler Definition of an operation schedule Schedule in phases and tasks Control of the time scale Browsing by tasks or units Conflict resolution Task Scheduler

Defence Research & Development Canada 13 EBB Task Scheduler Task Scheduler

Defence Research & Development Canada 14 EBB Task Scheduler (Parameters) Task Scheduler

Defence Research & Development Canada 15 EBB Task Scheduler (Groupings) Task Scheduler

Defence Research & Development Canada 16 EBB Logistic Planner Calculation of the logistic resources required –Based on the defined plan and Orbat (or subset) –Takes into account the parameter sets –Use of complex formulas Logistic Planner

Defence Research & Development Canada 17 EBB Logistic Planner Logistic Planner OrBat Plan Equipment characteristics

Defence Research & Development Canada 18 EBB Movement Planners Road, air & rail movement planners Road –Definition of the itinaries, road segments, control points –Not graphically based –Provides the timings for movement Air –Calculation of the number of aircraft for moving personnel and equipment Movement planners (road, rail and air)

Defence Research & Development Canada 19 Road Movement Planner Road Movement Planner

Defence Research & Development Canada 20 Air Movement Planner Air Movement Planner

Defence Research & Development Canada 21 EBB Rail Movement Planner Calculation of the number of train cars required for a train movement Visual representation of the train cars and equipment Optimisation using genetic algorithms Air Movement Planner

Defence Research & Development Canada 22 EBB Key Design Features Deployable without any runtime fees User interface based on the MS Office metaphors Import / Export facilities to MS Office Suite French or English user interface (user selectable) Full-featured and multimedia on-line help

Defence Research & Development Canada 23 EBB Status Deployed throughout the Canadian Army Set as a basis for C2IS planning tools Adopted by Australian Army as part of their Battlefield Command Support System (BCSS) Move from a single-user configuration towards a distributed collaborative configuration Can be tailored to civilian applications

Defence Research & Development Canada 24 Conclusion EBB significantly reduces some of the Army C2IS planning tasks Allows staff officers to focus on real planning tasks rather than clerical tasks EBB has large user acceptance because of –Highly graphical user interface –MS Office metaphors –Very portable software