Management Tool for the Battlespace Environment:

An HLA tool, i.e., a battlemaster, is needed to enable a user to easily configure, control, and monitor a large-scale distributed exercise,. MSK Technologies has substantial expertise in HLA, is the leading supplier of HLA tools, and is a developer of networked games containing battlemaster components. Therefore, MSK is the ideal candidate to develop the battlemaster required by the M&S community. MSK Technologies will develop an HLA Battlemaster that supports configuration, control, and monitoring of both federations and individual federates. The Battlemaster will provide access to the required standard set of RTI's services, the Management Object Model, and the federation's FOM. In addition, the Battlemaster will provide a specialized set of services through its Battlemaster Application Programmer Interface (BAPI), which supports federate-specific plug-ins. MSK's Battlemaster will be based on MSK's commercial HLA Plan-View-Display, lowering time requirements, cost, and risk, while providing additional capabilities that are not ordinarily found in a battlemaster. At the beginning of Phase I, MSK will interview operational users to determine the functional requirements of the HLA Battlemaster. These requirements will guide development of an object-orientated design specification. With the newly created design and MSK's existing commercial PVD, MSK will create an initial Battlemaster prototype. To complete the spiral development cycle, MSK proposes a Phase I option to develop a test federation. We will iterate upon four components (requirements, design, prototype, and test federation) during Phase II to create a powerful, robust, flexible HLA Battlemaster. MSK can achieve all this in Phase I by leveraging existing tools and technology, and by applying its experience in both HLA and design and development of battlemasters for networked games.