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Glossary of Terms

A glossary of military digital technology terms

A reference for stakeholders in the defence and technology domains, our A-Z glossary provides easy access to key terms, concepts and programs related to military digital technology, interoperability and joint operations.

Accidental Interoperability: The unintended ability of disparate military systems to communicate and work together, often due to shared standards or ad-hoc connections, which can occur spontaneously in operational environments.

Adaptability: The quality of being able to adjust to new conditions: The capacity to be modified for a new use or purpose.

Agility: The ability to move quickly and easily: Ability to think and understand quickly.

ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit): ATAK is a geospatial mapping and collaboration platform used by military and public safety organizations for situational awareness, mission planning, and team coordination. It provides real-time location tracking, data sharing, and communication capabilities on Android devices.

Big Data Analytics: The process of examining large and complex datasets to uncover hidden patterns, correlations, and insights that can inform military decision-making, planning, and operations.

Burden: A load, typically a heavy one. In the soldier context this usually means the physical burden (equipment), logistical (suppling the deployed soldier) and cognitive (the soldier’s mental load).

C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance): An integrated system of systems used by military organizations for decision-making and operations, encompassing various digital technologies and capabilities.

CJADC-2 (Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control): An expansion of the JADC2 concept, encompassing multinational and coalition partners, aimed at achieving seamless integration and synchronization of all military domains for combined joint operations.

Cloud Computing: The delivery of computing services, including storage, processing, and software, over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis, providing scalable and on-demand access to resources for military applications.

CoT (Cursor on Target): A data format and protocol used for sharing geospatial information, including location, orientation, and other metadata, between military command and control systems, sensors, and tactical applications. It enables real-time situational awareness, tracking, and coordination of friendly forces in dynamic operational environments.

COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf): COTS refers to products and technologies that are commercially available and ready-made for purchase, rather than being custom-built for a specific military application. COTS solutions are often used in military systems to reduce development time and costs, leveraging advancements in the commercial market.

Cybersecurity: The protection of military digital systems, networks, and data from cyber threats, including hacking, malware, and espionage, to ensure mission assurance and operational effectiveness.

Data Distribution System (DDS): DDS is a middleware standard for real-time data distribution and integration. It enables scalable, high-performance, and interoperable data sharing between applications and devices in distributed systems, commonly used in military command and control, autonomous systems, and aerospace applications.

DDIL (Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (bandwidth): Environments where communications are hampered or rendered impossible by denied, disrupted, intermittent, and limited bandwidth, signals and connectivity.

Digitized Battlespace: The integration of digital technologies, sensors, and networks across military operations, enabling real-time data collection, analysis, and decision-making to achieve information superiority and operational effectiveness.

Digital Interoperability: The ability of different military digital systems and platforms to communicate, exchange data, and operate together effectively.

Digital Integration: The process of incorporating digital technologies and systems into various aspects of military operations to enhance capabilities, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Digital Overmatch: The strategic advantage gained by leveraging superior digital capabilities, including AI, data analytics, and networked communications, to outperform and outmaneuver adversaries in the modern battlespace.

Digital Soldier: A concept that involves equipping military personnel with advanced digital technologies, such as wearable sensors, communication devices, and augmented reality systems, to enhance situational awareness, decision-making, and performance on the battlefield.

DSEI (Defence and Security Equipment International): One of the world’s largest defence and security exhibitions, showcasing the latest innovations, technologies, and equipment for defence and security applications.

Edge AI: Artificial intelligence algorithms and models deployed on edge computing devices, such as sensors, drones, and vehicles, to enable autonomous decision-making and inference at the point of data collection, enhancing situational awareness and responsiveness in military environments.

Edge Computing: A distributed computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, typically near the source of data generation, enabling real-time processing, reduced latency, and bandwidth optimization in military operations.

Federated Mission Networking (FMN): An approach to military networking that enables interoperability among coalition partners by allowing each participant to maintain autonomy over their networks while facilitating seamless information sharing and collaboration.

Future Soldier Systems: Military programs and initiatives focused on developing and fielding advanced technologies and capabilities to enhance the effectiveness and survivability of soldiers on the modern battlefield.

GPS (Global Positioning System): A satellite-based navigation system used by military forces worldwide for precise positioning, navigation, and timing applications.

HEAK (Hyper Enabled Awareness Kit): A concept involving advanced sensor technologies and data analytics capabilities to provide enhanced situational awareness and decision support to military personnel in the field.

Joint Warfighting Concept: A framework that guides the development and employment of joint military forces, emphasizing integration, interoperability, and collaboration across all domains to achieve strategic objectives.

Joint Warfighting Contract: A contractual agreement that supports joint military operations by providing logistics, support services, and specialized capabilities to enhance interoperability and effectiveness across multiple services and domains.

Joint Warfighting Doctrine: The collective principles, tactics, techniques, and procedures that guide joint military operations, emphasizing unity of effort, interoperability, and agility across all services and domains.

Lean Services Architecture (LSA): A service-oriented architecture approach that emphasizes simplicity, efficiency, and agility in designing and implementing military information systems and applications, enabling rapid deployment and adaptation to changing requirements. Invented and authored by 2iC, a UK Deftech SME, the Lean Services Architecture specification is published under the Open Government Licence by the UK Ministry of Defence.

LOS (Line of Sight): A critical factor in military communications and targeting systems, referring to the unobstructed path between a transmitter and receiver necessary for effective communication or engagement.

LOSA (Land Open System Architecture): An open, service-based architecture for systems integration and interoperability in the land environment, developed by the UK Ministry of Defence.

MDI (Mission Data Integration): The process of integrating mission-critical data from various sources, including sensors, intelligence databases, and command systems, to provide a comprehensive situational understanding and support decision-making in military operations.

Message Queue Telemetry Transfer (MQTT): A lightweight messaging protocol designed for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-latency, or unreliable networks. It facilitates efficient communication between devices and applications, commonly used in IoT (Internet of Things) and M2M (Machine-to-Machine) scenarios in military applications.

Meta Standard Interoperability: Interoperability achieved through the use of overarching standards or meta-standards that govern the implementation and interaction of multiple specific standards, facilitating integration and compatibility among diverse systems and platforms.

Military Overmatch: The strategic advantage gained by a military force through superiority in technology, equipment, training, tactics, or other factors, enabling it to decisively defeat or deter adversaries across the spectrum of conflict.

Middleware: The “software glue” that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. Typically, it supports complex, distributed business software applications. Middleware is those services found above the transport (e.g. TCP/IP) layer but below the application environment” (e.g. APIs). Middleware can be described as the dash (“-“) in client-server or pub-sub or the -to- in peer-to-peer.

Mission Overmatch: The ability of a military force to achieve decisive superiority in a specific operational or mission context, leveraging advanced capabilities, tactics, and technologies to accomplish mission objectives with minimal risk or resistance.

MOSA: A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) is an integrated business and technical strategy to achieve competitive and affordable acquisition and sustainment over the system life cycle. A MOSA is the DoD preferred method for implementation of open systems, and it is required by United States law.

Multinational Interoperability Protocol (MIP): A set of standards and protocols designed to facilitate interoperability between military forces from different nations. It defines common data formats, communication protocols, and procedures to enable seamless information sharing and collaboration in multinational operations.

NATO Standardization Agreements (STANAGs): Agreements established by NATO to standardize procedures, protocols, and technical specifications for interoperability among member nations’ armed forces, including digital technologies and systems.

On-Soldier Systems: Military systems and technologies designed to be worn or carried by individual soldiers, including personal protective equipment, communication devices, and sensors.

Open Architecture: A technology infrastructure with specifications that are public as opposed to proprietary. This includes officially approved standards as well as privately designed architectures, the specifications of which are made public by their designers.

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): This is intelligence that is produced from publicly available information. Note that ‘Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)’ is often confused with Open Standards, Open Source Software and Open Architecture.

Open Source Software (OSS): Computer software where the licence does not require a royalty or other fee. The program must include the source code to build the software, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Note this is different from Open Standards and Open Architecture.

Open Standards: There is no single accepted definition of Open Standard. However, the UK Government has a definition which should be applied across Government. This is summarised as “[open] standards enable software to interoperate through open protocols and allow the exchange of data between data stores and software through open data and document formats.”

RESTful JSON Services: RESTful JSON (Representational State Transfer JSON) services are web services that adhere to the principles of REST architecture and use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as the data format for representing and exchanging resources. They provide lightweight, stateless, and scalable communication between distributed systems, commonly used in military applications for data exchange and integration.

SAPIENT (Scalable Advanced Processor for Intelligence, Exploitation, and Targeting): A high-performance computing platform developed for military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. It integrates advanced processing capabilities, data analytics, and sensor fusion techniques to support rapid and accurate decision-making in complex operational environments.

Software Architecture: This is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing software and systems. A full definition is: It refers to the high level structures of a software system, the discipline of creating such structures, and the documentation of these structures. These structures are needed to reason about the software system. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations. The architecture of a software system is a metaphor, analogous to the architecture of a building.

Soldier-Worn Solutions: Advanced equipment and technologies specifically designed to be worn by soldiers to enhance their capabilities and protection on the battlefield.

Un-crewed Military Vehicles: Vehicles operated without onboard human operators, including unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), used for a variety of military missions such as reconnaissance, surveillance, logistics, and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).

Variable Message Format (VMF): A standardized format for encoding and exchanging tactical messages between military platforms and systems. It provides a common language for conveying mission-critical information such as orders, reports, and situational updates, enabling interoperability and coordination among diverse command and control elements.

Warfighter: A term used to refer to military personnel directly involved in combat or other operations, highlighting their central role in achieving mission success and operational effectiveness.