<title>Battlefield awareness overview</title>

Abstract

The Information Systems Office (ISO) at DARPA develops, applies, integrates, and transitions information technology and systems to enable domination of the battlespace. To that end, ISO is engaged in three thrusts: comprehensive battlespace awareness; intelligent and timely force management and battle execution; and, realistic and affordable simulation for training, mission rehearsal, and course of action evaluation. In each thrust, ISO concentrates on enduring and future threats and solutions. The development approach involves creating the next generation of infrastructure, technology, and applications to build, sustain, and maintain a tightly-coupled system of systems. ISO information systems drive evolving concepts and doctrine for implementing a new warfare paradigm in which knowledge, not mass and fire power, is key to battlespace dominance across the ever-expanding spectrum of conflict. DARPA views its Battlespace Awareness Program as the catalyst for accelerating the implementation of a continually-evolving system of information technology that will enable the information-based warfare paradigm described above. The roadmap being followed by DARPA is to design, develop and transition a pilot infrastructure of information systems that can be used to enable emerging new operational concepts and guide future system developments and acquisitions. This infrastructure requires integrated system applications and a common information support environment.