Digitized Battlefields

I've been selected as one of the contributors of a special issue of the Finmeccanica-Selex technical journal Polaris that will be dedicated to Land & Battlefield systems and applications (to be published later on this year).

I'm sharing with you the Introduction that I just wrote for my entry in the Journal. This will be included in a longer contribution addressing topics such as advanced middelwares for C4I applications, need-to-know vs. need-to-share, and also a review of the most recent initiatives for Joint and Multinational interoperability.

I hope you'll enjoy!

The Javelin anti-tank system requires the operator to lock-on the intended objective before launching the missile, which then proceeds autonomously against the target by means of its on-board IR system and tracking capabilities. Back in 2008, during a chilly January night in the suburbs of Paygharakay, Afghanistan, it was not so easy for a Javelin gunner to track and lock its intended target. The Task Force was informed of an insurgents’ vehicle that was lying IEDs in proximity of the Norfolk Check Point. Even with poor visibility, firing with the Javelin was basically the only choice: the target was out of range of the 81mm mortars that were available at the Inkerman Base. Tension started to build, even though the insurgents were still silent after the warning shots and the illumination with the 50mm. It was time to go. From the thermal viewer the gunner was finally seeing a single heat source, and he engaged the target. It looked like a good shot: just a moderate back-blast, and friendly forces quickly confirmed an hit, 1 insurgent killed. Strangely, however, alarms began to hear in the distance. It was not the Inkerman, though, since the direction was different and much closer to the position of the insurgents. And in fact, just as the Task Force was trying to update the situation with its HQ, the news came: there has been an attack against the base of Tufan, where a sentinel of the Afghan Army had been caught by heavy fire, apparently a direct attack from a few kilometres away. The overall scenario was not clear, however, and there were necessary a number of cross-checks before the gunner came to understand what happened in reality: the heat source that was selected from the Javelin was not that of the possible insurgent, but that of the sentry position in Tufan. Battle Damage Assessment: 1 Afghan National Army Killed in Action, a Blue on Blue fatal accident.

The story behind this fratricide is only one of thousands of friendly fire events that have been reported only in the last decade. Going through these reports we are left with many questions. In most of the cases, in fact, we may figure out that friendly fire is by and large a combination of poor battlefield information and wrong decisions from soldiers or commanders. May the technology play a role in this scenario?

Nowadays there is an established understanding that digitally interconnected units (digitized units) may achieve a substantial increase in their capacity to exchange critical information and achieve a shared situational awareness. Digitized units can better discern where the friendly elements are located in the battlefield and prevent events such as those occurred in Paygharakay. At the same time, lessons learned from modern battlefields show that land forces move faster and operate more effectively when updated views on blue and red forces are available at both operational and tactical levels. Command posts synchronized with lower echelons provide enhanced reinforcements in terms of intelligence data and fire support. Simultaneously, deployed forces maintain a better understanding of their position in the battlespace with more effective land navigation and manoeuvre. Commanders on the ground can be aware of friendly combat forces moving or fighting adjacent to each other, not only for prevention of fratricides but also to make full use of all the available resources in the battlefield.

As a result of the above, in the last decade many Armies and Organizations have launched ambitious programs for the digitization of the battlespace, with evident progresses in terms of networking and interoperability among deployed units.

(Copyright 2016 - Guerino Giancola)