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We can do plenty of stuff to mess with the US Player's "perfect" Situational Awareness potential. I don't want to get into details yet, but not being able to utilize support assets, units not being registered with Blue Force Tracker, poor quality enemy intel being passed along the network, etc. All sorts of things can be done to realistically make things less than perfect for the US player.

Steve

There you have it. A ROSTER! smile.gif

Yes?

smile.gif

-tom w

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These assets are currently very locally controlled. At best a hacker would be able to mess with one thing at a time. And that is about as likely to happen in a real battlefield situation as lightning striking. I'm sure the COTS stuff that is being used is low security, but the things that are being officially adapted for military use tend to come with some heavy duty hardware based encryption.

Oh, and Tom... none of this equates to an Order of Battle (Roster) type display.

Steve

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Heck, there is some criticism that even the guys tasked with operating FBCB2 don't have enough training to use it propperly :D

Tom, Blue Force Tracker keeps track of the position of all vehicles that have functioning communication with the network. It used to be that only command vehicles had this ability, but for Styker units all vehicles have this ability. They call it "digitization" and the Stryker Brigades are the first "all digital" units in the US military. There is a long timeline for brining all units up to this standard.

Recently BFT is being applied to Squad Leaders, so now there is some ability to track dismounted infantry units. This is what the Stryker Warrior program is all about. We are simulting this system being in place for CM:SF (it should start trickling out to Stryker units this year).

What this means is that, at best, the US commander's knowledge of his own forces' locations is still incomplete. Far better than at any time in the past, but still incomplete. And due to technical limitations, it is also probable that some of that incomplete information is inaccurate. In theory this isn't the case, but there are reasons for calling things a theory instead of a reality :D

Steve

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What this means is that, at best, the US commander's knowledge of his own forces' locations is still incomplete. Far better than at any time in the past, but still incomplete. And due to technical limitations, it is also probable that some of that incomplete information is inaccurate. In theory this isn't the case, but there are reasons for calling things a theory instead of a reality

OK

Thanks for filling me in smile.gif

Umm

But how will it affect game play?

The All seeing God Like player will still have WAY more info then the real life US commander even in 2007? Or are you folks working on that part of the problem?

"due to technical limitations, it is also probable that some of that incomplete information is inaccurate."

How does that statement impact game play?

And what of the Syrian's?? I am guessing they don't have anything like this so on the most realistic FOW setting the Syrian player could be completelly hobbled by lack of intel about anything about almost anything on the battlefield? (just wondering how this will all play out in the game?? :confused: )

Thanks again for the update

-tom w

[ October 18, 2005, 12:56 PM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

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Originally posted by aka_tom_w:

Umm

But how will it affect game play?

The All seeing God Like player will still have WAY more info then the real life US commander even in 2007? Or are you folks working on that part of the problem?

Yeah. I seem to recall my Soviets in CMBB having BFT back in '42. Except they called it RFT and it always worked.
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Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

They call it "digitization" and the Stryker Brigades are the first "all digital" units in the US military.

Digital "appliqué" AKA FBCB2 was first used with 4th ID AKA FXXI or Force 21. This was Reimer's baby. FBCB2 being Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below.

BFT is a trimmed version of FBCB2 and was fielded to some mech units before OIF kicked off.

The Stryker Brigade was the first unit design in which ABCS (Army Battle Command System) pieces like FBCB2 were taken into consideration as part of the design. The Strykers were the first to be digital from the ground up, but not the first to be digitized.

Oh, is this also a good thread for Contractors on the Battlefield? 4th ID had 600+ running around during one of the big exercises, perhaps millenium challenge, just trying to keep those ABCS systems working.

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RMC, yeah I have a nice chart showing the number of units of FBCB2 slated for each year (including 1700 for 4th ID in FY'00) until 2015. Thanks for correcting my terminology about digital ground up vs. digitized.

My understanding is FBCB2's main bugs have been worked out of it, I think, however it is still touchy in hot conditions. Unfortunately, that is where they are all located right now! Units have had to improvise to keep them cooled. Also complaints that the system is slow, though I don't know if they mean FBCB2 or the link to ABCS.

Steve

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