Interpreting Commander ’ s Intent : Do we really know what we know and what we don ’ t know ?

The 21 Century Military is shifting its focus from traditional combat operations to stability, security, transition, and reconstruction (SSTR) operations (Department of Defense Directive, 2005). US policy on SSTR operations requires full interoperability among representatives across US Departments and Agencies, foreign governments and security forces, international organizations, US and foreign non-governmental organizations, and members of the private sector. This shift in focus has drawn attention to the idea that one of the most salient dimensions of 21 Century warfighting is the ability to operate effectively with others despite the fact that there are likely substantial differences in capabilities and cultural backgrounds. However, knowing the degree to which a team is completely interoperable can be elusive and hard to quantify. One approach is to evaluate how effective teams are able to interpret commander’s intent and develop situational awareness in various conditions. This paper describes a technique for evaluating interoperability through a quantitative evaluation of commander’s intent and how intent was promulgated through a simulated, distributed and collocated Coalition Task Force (CTF) during an October 2006 Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored joint experiment between the Singapore (SN) Armed Forces and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Human Research and Engineering Directorate (ARLHRED).