Abstract

As the vision of network-centric warfare (NCW) becomes a reality in the Future Force, it is clear that trading steel for information represents a true revolution in military affairs. This places increasing demands on individual soldiers and commanders to incorporate this additional information into the military decision-making process (MDMP). To be truly useful for decision-making, new information must be integrated into the warfighter's mental image of the current situation and future events, and be accurately related to the mission. This process, called battlefield visualization, is often more of an art than a science and is not accorded the same level of training rigor as other aspects of military decision-making. In this paper, we will present an approach for improving the quality of military decision-making instruction by explicitly training the basic visualization skills underlying battlefield visualization. This approach is based on a careful analysis of the information and cognitive skill requirements for a company-level cordon and search in a Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) environment. In addition, the approach includes deliberate pedagogical strategies to engage trainees in active, guided practice and to prompt them to self-explain their actions. The goal is to produce visualization training (consisting of curricular materials and a digital visualization training tool) that transfers to the battlefield regardless of whether the soldier is using a new command and control system or grease pencils on an acetate sheet. While this work is ongoing, our current framework suggests that this approach will demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of human-computer visualization for military decision-making training and represent a significant step forward in digital instruction technique and product.