The vast majority of information in the common operational picture is explicit information. The difficulty comes in placing the information in a larger context and understanding its implications. Sensor entities are key contributors to battlespace awareness. As is described in detail in the sections that follow, shared battlespace awareness is fundamentally a network-centric capability. In contrast, battlespace knowledge consists of tacit information.
Tacit information requires interpretations.
69 Examples of tacit information include capabilities and tactics of an adversary, local customs, and intent. Battlespace knowledge is a people-centric capability in the sense that knowledge workers play a key role in developing, processing, and communicating tacit information. Actor and decision entities can exploit battlespace awareness and knowledge by bringing models to bear. They use doctrinal models, decision aids, expert systems, or the modeling services of an anchor desk that provides a reach-back capability to nondeployed entities. Actors can act upon any of these levels of information.