The Information Age, however, is already bringing about changes that will ultimately merge battle management, planning, and execution into an integrated, dynamic adaptive progress. This will require effective interactions between not only decision entities and actors, but also sensors. Figure 16, Roles of Battlespace Entities, depicts the respective roles and nature of the interactions among sensor, actor, and decision entities as we close out the 20 th century and project the 21 st century. A view is usually a subset of information in the COP aggregated and displayed in a particular way to support a decision or task.
COPs serve to ensure there is functional consistency among the different views.
Currently, COPs are mainly a work in progress. Significant inconsistencies still need to be addressed. How best to do this, and the problems associated with achieving a common perception of a situation, remain topics for research and experimentation. Sensors provide the data they collect either to data storage centers that support one or more COPs, as well as directly to selected actors. The limits are a function of our legacy, stove-piped environment.