Big Sky is the Reunification Alliance’s integrated battlefield command and coordination system. It collectively comprises the linked processing power of all Reunification Navy and Alliance Combat Forces assets within the operational area, and works to synthesise and optimise battlefield management, command-and-control, and kill-chain completion between all deployed platforms and units. In any practical sense Big Sky is an ever-changing network of organic, mechanical, and AI operators overseeing battlefield management and weapon assignment across the full breadth and depth of the battlespace.
Development on the Big Sky system began in 3164 as part of an effort to better facilitate the optimal tasking of support platforms, and the system debuted in the field in 3189 in the Second Kharak-Ghar War. Initial teething problems were associated more with doctrine than the system itself, and by the time the armistice was signed a year later Big Sky was considered an essential component of Alliance battlefield capabilities.
Function and Employment
Big Sky is effectively a massive tactical network supporting all Alliance operations across space, but mostly localised to specific instances to avoid information overload and inefficient long-range communication. On large deployments, a Reunification Navy warship will usually serve as a central hub for the local instances, subordinating all duties to providing an ever-present source of baseline request processing.
Big Sky can be connected to in numerous ways. Warships will usually directly interact with the system via terminals or their Ship AI, but atmospheric platforms, and particularly infantry, generally use either verbal or neural dialogue instead. In combat this dialogue will be nearly constant, and is made universally available to infantry officers down to the platoon-level (and conditionally permitted below even that). A Big Sky operator will feed a ground commander a near-constant stream of intelligence on friendly and hostile movements, keeping them informed of changing circumstances, and handle any requests for additional support or weapons tasking.
This, in the minds of the infantry, is Big Sky’s primary role. When they are in trouble, they can connect to Big Sky and call targets into the attack queue. The system will then assign priority values to these targets, and task weapons or strike platforms to engage as they become available.
Its overall battlefield scope is of course somewhat larger, helping to reduce the cognitive load placed on commanders in the field. They can focus on directing the battle while Big Sky handles the number-crunching and optimisation hidden behind their decisions. Access to a constantly updating net of all known Alliance intelligence, gathered in real-time from all uplinked sensors and all call-ins, also gives them an unparalleled understanding of the evolving situation throughout the battlespace.
Workings
Big Sky comprises two main elements:
1- The interlinked sensor and communications network
2- The weapons assignment queue
The first of these elements provides battlefield knowledge, management, and intelligence facilities to officers at all levels, as well as feeding Big Sky itself with the information needed to optimise the second element, which semi-automatically completes kill-chains and ensures close-to-optimal use of all available platforms. The precise settings of this system can be adjusted according to exact circumstances (e.g. whether long-term preservation of magazine depth is necessary).
Some elements of this were controversial when it was first brought in; there are circumstances where the system may be inclined to decide that saving an infantry platoon is not worth tasking a full strike package that may be more useful for a later target. However, the most commonly used setting aim to prevent this, as do the presence of both organics and Smart AI within the integrated system.
The Weapons Assignment Queue
The weapons assignment queue was Big Sky’s original primary function. The necessity of integrating this with existing battlefield management systems, which subsequently proved inadequate and had to be reworked, is what resulted in Big Sky’s modern all-encompassing form. The queue follows the process outlined below.
1- A target is called-in to the system, either manually by a platform or soldier, or automatically by an uplinked sensor
2- The target is assigned a priority number and placed at the relevant position in the weapons queue
3- Changing circumstances see the target’s queue position shunted up and down accordingly, until the point it reaches the first position with no assigned weapon
4- As soon as this occurs, the system will automatically find a suitable platform(s) and assign the target; at this point it is locked-in and, barring command override, the attack will go ahead.
5- The attacking platform conducts its attack and feeds back to Big Sky, both manually and via automatic sensor returns.
6- If effect-on-target is good, the target will be removed from the queue. If further action is deemed necessary, the target will be placed in a new queue position to await further tasking
In most environments short of total war, the Alliance can bring to bear such mass that the queue is cleared very quickly. It is the pride both of Big Sky operators and the logistics officers making strategic unit assignments that weapons queues be kept totally clear as much as possible, with platforms assigned to targets the moment they are called in.
Of course, this is not always possible. In these circumstances, the following factors, the prioritisation of which can be fine-tuned according to circumstances, factor in to the network’s decisions about position assignment:
1- Target Category: a target will be classified as either Command Assigned, Manual Call-in, or Automatic Call-in. The classifications are listed here in descending order of priority, as the nature of a call-in often corresponds to the urgency and importance of the target.
2- Perceived Threat: the network will rank a target based on how much it is perceived to threaten (1) Alliance operational objectives, (2) Alliance personnel, and (3) Alliance platforms.
3- Time since Call-in (or Reshuffling Decay): the priority assigned to a target increases the longer it has been present in the queue. This is to avoid an important local target getting repeatedly shunted down the queue (and consequently never assigned) as new operational or strategic targets are called in.
4- Local Platform Availability (Dynamic Adjustment): The system will adaptively shuffle priorities according to platform availability in specific areas of the battlespace. For example, if Big Sky is managing a planetary war and an RN ship gets time-on-target above a certain continent, targets on that continent will be priority tasked while the platform is available. Equally, if a target is near the top of the queue but no suitable platforms are available, it will be shunted back down, and then brought back up at such a time as tasking becomes possible.
5- Cost-benefit Analysis: The system and its operators analyse the balance between the cost of striking a target, both in terms of opportunity cost and hardware expenditure, and the perceived likely benefits of authorising a strike. Targets that are easy to kill relative to their perceived value (this is closely linked with the Perceived Threat metric) will receive priority in the queue.
The Weapons Assignment Queue, then, fully optimises the kill-chain, by linking all Alliance observers throughout the battlespace, semi-automating the decision-making process, and optimising the assignment of suitable effectors according to target priority.