The digital age, the age of information, the computer age – all are terms used as identifiers to depict how the 21st century has brought with it nearly unfathomable amounts of data. Knowing that the information is there and how to access it is one thing, but making sense of it and using it for both defense and commercial purposes is what makes it so-called big data. The challenge for both warfighters and the manufacturers that provide them with their technology: Acquiring that data in contested environments and relaying it in an efficient way. Making this task more difficult is the reality that conflict often occurs in data-denied areas, making it near-impossible for these systems to access the information the military wants or doesn’t yet know it needs. The accessibility of data in-theater is a key challenge for advancing big data utilization in the military. Big data is a broad term with applicability across many areas of interest to the military. We see a clear trend of military requirements directing the use of big data throughout the life cycle of new procurements and the modernization of legacy systems. As new sources of data develop and novel uses for data emerge, big data growth will continually outpace utilization in all industries, including the military. Big data has been called the oxygen of the ML revolution and military intelligence gathering. The capabilities are designed to supplement each other with the intent to provide warfighters with mission-critical, timely information at the tactical edge.