As a result of various digitization initiatives, Army Battle Command (BC) systems have evolved into sets of interconnected systems, forming synchronized information architectures. Operationally, the purpose of these information architectures is to establish and maintain a distributed, consistent understanding upon which organizations execute synchronized operations. Underpinning this capability for distributed understanding is the need for distributed, consistent data. Each BC system must be initialized with that consistent data to be able to synchronize with the other BC systems. And, to support the requirements to "train as we fight", modeling and simulation (M&S) systems must also be able to synchronize with these BC systems, using that same consistent data. This is an enormous challenge.

Currently, there are multiple initialization processes executed by multiple organizations using multiple tool sets for multiple systems (e.g., modeling and simulation, battle command, and communications networks). The cost in time and resources to initialize all of these systems is perceived to be excessive, and the full range of Army systems and processes that perform initialization is not well understood much less streamlined. As the Army moves towards digitization and as embedded, inter-vehicle training systems become a reality, the inefficiencies and overlap in these processes become a costly impediment. Rapid, repeatable and error-reducing initialization processes and tools to implement those processes must be available to both the BC and M&S systems.

Sponsored by SIMCI (PEO STRI and PEO C3T), this paper will present the analysis of initialization requirements for BC and communications systems and M&S systems used by a Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT). It will detail the methodology used to collect data and present the results to include: a characterization of the common data for BC, communications, and M&S; an estimate of resources required to derive these data; and recommendations for future work.