Identifying Battlefield Information Collection Strategies to Support ‘Every Soldier is a Sensor’ Training

Abstract

The trend towards network-centric warfare has been accompanied by a shift towards the ‘Every Soldier is a Sensor’ (ES2) concept where battlefield information collection is completed by regular soldiers within a company/platoon (U.S. Army, 2008). To support the development of ES2 training we investigated a priori battlefield information collection strategies. Twenty military participants completed a reconnaissance mission in a virtual environment during which multiple events occurred. Participants decided whether or not to collect information about these events. After the mission participants categorized events as having an Information Type (Population, Geography, Hostile) and a Relevance (for Current Operations, Future Operations, or Command and Control). Results suggest that across individuals neither Information Type nor Relevance predicts the probability of recording information although Geographic events were slightly more influential. Within participants there was a somewhat stable collection pattern. The results highlight the importance of training for ES2 and provide a starting point for developing training programs.