Applied Encryption: Ensuring Integrity of Tactical Data

The Common Operational Picture (COP) has been defined as an electronic picture of the battlefield, depicting the disposition of own and enemy forces, combining a detailed 'little picture' view fed by organic (tactical) sensors and a 'big picture' view fed by national sensors.'1 The ability of our forces to view an identical electronic battlefield from workstation to workstation cannot be overstated. These operational views are shared as well as updated by all forces within the arena and therefore must be synchronized. This process is accomplished through the use of COP Synchronization Tools (CST) software. CST allows for the exchange of track data between participating CST nodes. It uses either Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or Universal Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol (UDP/IP). This exchange of data is near real-time and accomplished via local area networks (LANs) using importer/exporter (IE) objects and wide area networks (WANs) using CST interfaces.