Operationalization of Standardized Command and Control-Simulation Interoperability (C2SIM),

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has formed a Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Group (MSG) to investigate how M&S can enhance NATO's mission accomplishment and promote cooperation its use. The recently formed MSG-145, is tasked to mature the efforts of the MSG-085 and 048 from an academic study into a truly operational capability. C2SIM provides individual nations a capability to use their national C2 and simulation systems during planning within a coalition military force. The use of Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) as the information exchange hub allows each nation to conduct planning in a distributed environment in collaboration with their coalition partners. This paper provides the background of previous MSG efforts in C2SIM and current U.S. Army efforts in information sharing within a coalition force. It also describes process connections that must take place to establish the C2SIM capability envisioned by MSG-145 and identifies how the U.S. Army can leverage the C2SIM capability during coalition operations. The unique nature of C2SIM and C-BML allows commanders and their staff to conduct a planning process on their own C2 and simulation systems, yet is sharable with other forces within a NATO coalition. The U.S. Army has multiple venues where the C2SIM capability can be implemented to improve its coalition warfighting readiness within the NATO organizational construct.