The goal is to test the latest in battlefield organization, tactics, doctrine, and technological capabilities to determine their potential value early on in the acquisition process - before significant investment has been made in their preparation and deployment.
The analysis performed by a battle lab consists primarily in forming hypotheses, then conducting experiments based on modeling and simulation, possibly including operational end-users.
The mission of the United States Air Force Battlelab is to "rapidly identify and prove the worth of innovative ideas which improve the ability of the Air Force to execute its core competencies and Joint Warfighting.”[4] The mission of the Mission Command Battle Lab (MCBL) at United States Army Combined Arms Center is to "[mitigate] risk to current and future Army forces by examining and evaluating emerging concepts and technologies through experimentation, studies, prototyping, and network integration, while simultaneously informing the combat development and acquisition processes."
Battle labs can be set to explore a specific topic (called an "ad hoc battle lab," generally with a limited life span and very specialized means and simulations) or can be set as a multi-purpose exploration capability (with unlimited life span, flexible and scalable means and simulations).
For example, the NATO Distributed Networked Battle Labs (DNBL)[7] have been created in order to tighten cooperation on preparation and conduct of Experimentation, Test and Evaluation (ET&E) events between the members of the framework.