The Electronic Battle Box Denis Gouin Defence Research & Development Canada

The Electronic Battle Box

Denis GouinDefence Research & Development Canada

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


EBB Objectives

• Provide an electronic version of the Army battle box– Doctrinal documents, SOPs and SOHs

• Provide an integrated suiteof planning tools– ORBAT & Equipment browsers– Task Planner / Scheduler– Logistics Planner– Movement Planners

ELECTRONIC ELECTRONIC BATTLE BOXBATTLE BOX

NationalDefence

DéfenseNationale


Stakeholders

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NationalDefence

DéfenseNationale

Directorate of Army DoctrineDirectorate of Land RequirementsG4 Staff of 1 Cdn Div


The EBB Binder


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)


EBB Equipment Browser

• Browsing of equipment categories• Tree-view representation• Search tool• Display of collateral imagery

EquipmentBrowser


EBB Equipment BrowserEquipment

Browser


EBB ORBAT Browser

• Browsing of doctrinal Orbats• Tree-view and Orgchart representations• Control over the displayed information• Display of resources

ORBATBrowser


EBB ORBAT BrowserORBATBrowser


EBB ORBAT BrowserORBATBrowser


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

TaskScheduler


EBB Task SchedulerTask

Scheduler


EBB Task Scheduler (Parameters)

TaskScheduler


EBB Task Scheduler (Groupings)Task

Scheduler


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

LogisticPlanner


EBB Logistic PlannerLogisticPlanner

OrBat

Plan

Equipment characteristics


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)


Road Movement Planner

Road Movement

Planner


Air Movement PlannerAir

MovementPlanner


EBB Rail Movement Planner

• Calculation of the number of train cars requiredfor a train movement

• Visual representation of the train cars and equipment• Optimisation using genetic algorithms

Air Movement

Planner


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


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


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

Documents

The Electronic Battle Box Denis Gouin Defence Research & Development Canada