Team performance in air combat:A teamwork perspective.

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Objective: The objective of this paper is to describe a model combining taskwork and teamwork of a single-seat fighter aircraft team, or flight, during its performance episode. Background: In air combat, evaluations of team performance have focused on task performance. However, both teamwork and taskwork are required for high performance output. Attempts to address taskwork and teamwork in single-seat fighter aircraft flights have mainly settled for adopting existing models of teamwork to flights. As such, they have overlooked the unique nature of teamwork in air combat. Method: Existing models of teamwork and taskwork are reviewed and a flight’s tactical decision-making is described as an input-process-output model. A model combining flight’s teamwork, taskwork, situation awareness and transactive memory is conceptualized and operation of the model is illustrated with a case study. In the case study, the model is used to provide an alternative explanation for an air combat accident. Results: The model bridges the gap between the well-established concepts of teamwork and the unique nature of air combat. It rationalizes how the mission essential competencies, situation awareness and transactive memory interact with each other, and how they impact the flight’s performance output. Conclusions: The model helps scholars and practitioners in identifying the connection between the flight’s performance output and the underlying processes even when cause and effect are not adjacent in either time or space.Peer reviewe

Fratricide: defective decision making

Motivation – to explore the applicability of a Human Factors methodology for the investigation of fratricide. Research approach – The EAST methodology was used to analyse an incident of fratricide and its ability to explore the Famous Five of Fratricide (F3) model was investigated. Findings/Design – the analysis revealed that EAST was able to provide explicit discussion of the Famous Five of Fratricide (F3) models five causal factors of communication, cooperation, coordination, schemata and situation awareness. Research limitations/Implications – the research explored a single case study and as such is couched at the initial phases of investigation. Originality/Value – the analysis provides a contribution to the knowledge urrounding fratricide both with respect to the novel application of the EAST methodology to an incident of fratricide, and also the causal factors identified by EAST within the fratricide incident. Take away message – the EAST methodology provides an innovative way of exploring causality in incidents of fratricide<br/

What we got Here, is a Failure to Coordinate: Implicit and Explicit Coordination in Air Combat

Publisher Copyright: © Copyright 2023, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.Air combat is the ultimate test for teamwork, as teams of fighter pilot (or flights), must coordinate their actions in a highly complex, hostile, dynamic and time critical environment. Flights can coordinate their actions using communication, that is, explicitly, or by relying on team situation awareness (SA), that is, implicitly. This paper examines how these two forms of coordination are associated with performance when prosecuting or evading an attack in simulated air combat. This was done by investigating the flights’ team SA, number of SA-related communication acts and performance in these two types of critical events during air combat. The results exhibit a quadratic dependence between team SA and communication. The rate of change of SA-related communication frequency with respect to change of team SA was negative: communication was needed to build team SA, but once an appropriate level of team SA was established, fewer communications were required. If, however, team SA deteriorated the number of SA communication acts increased. However, during time critical events, the flights did not always have enough time to coordinate their actions verbally. If the flights’ team SA in such situations was low, the flights’ explicit coordination attempts were not sufficient to avoid poor performance.Peer reviewe

The Effects of Commercial Video Game Playing: A Comparison of Skills and Abilities for the Predator UAV

Currently, Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are operated by pilots and navigators experienced with manned combat aircraft. With a projected increase in UAVs, more combat pilots will be needed to operate these aircraft. Yet, if the current operational tempo continues, the supply of combat pilots may not be able to meet the demand. Perhaps alternative pools of Air Force personnel could be considered for UAV duty to meet operational requirements. Because the Predator UAV is a software-driven aircraft, video game players (VGPs) already possess and use many skills that may be similar to those of Predator UAV pilots. A variety of games can add situational awareness skills that a player/airman can bring to a new situation. This research examines the applicability of video-games-based skills to the operation of the Predator UAV. Nine people were interviewed to determine the overlap between piloting skills, UAV-specific skills, and skills gained and developed from gaming. The results indicate that frequent VGPs have the confidence and the consistent ability to obtain and retain new skills, many of which are related to operating the Predator UAV in a 2-D environment while not relying on the visual and nonvisual cues of the manned aircraft pilot

Team situation awareness accuracy measurement technique for simulated air combat:Curvilinear relationship between awareness and performance

Publisher Copyright: © 2021A new technique for the assessment of Team Situation Awareness (TSA) accuracy based upon post task Critical Decision Method structured interviews was developed and tested using 39 combat-ready F/A-18 pilots. Pilots undertook a number of simulated air combat scenarios, flying in flights of four aircraft against a formation of enemy aircraft. Results showed a strong curvilinear relationship where high TSA accuracy resulted in higher performance in some areas of air combat, measured with friendly losses and kills. There were diminishing returns in performance as TSA accuracy increased. This may explain why previous studies on air combat have found relatively weak relationships between situation awareness and performance where the relationship has been assumed to be linear.Peer reviewe

Operator/equipment Performance Measures: Results Of Literature Search

Literature review focuses on topics concerning perception, acceptable transmission delay, fidelity, and visual systems, including resolution, field of view, and target-background contrast

Electronic collaboration: Some effects of telecommunication media and machine intelligence on team performance

Both NASA and DoD have had a long standing interest in teamwork, distributed decision making, and automation. While research on these topics has been pursued independently, it is becoming increasingly clear that the integration of social, cognitive, and human factors engineering principles will be necessary to meet the challenges of highly sophisticated scientific and military programs of the future. Images of human/intelligent-machine electronic collaboration were drawn from NASA and Air Force reports as well as from other sources. Here, areas of common concern are highlighted. A description of the author's research program testing a 'psychological distancing' model of electronic media effects and human/expert system collaboration is given

An evaluation of the effectiveness of the crew resource management programme in naval aviation

The US Navy’s Crew Resource Management (CRM) training programme has not been evaluated within the last decade. Reactions were evaluated by analysing 51,570 responses to an item pertaining to CRM that is part of a safety climate survey. A total of 172 responses were obtained on a knowledge test. The attitudes of 553 naval aviators were assessed using an attitudes questionnaire. The CRM mishap rate from 1997 until 2007 was evaluated. It was found that naval aviators appear to think than CRM training is useful, are generally knowledgeable of, and display positive attitudes towards, the concepts addressed in the training. However, there is a lack of evidence to support the view that CRM training is having an effect on the mishap rate. As the next generation of highly automated aircraft becomes part of naval aviation, there is a need to ensure that CRM training evolves to meet this new challenge

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Europe Chapter 2014 Annual Conference:Human Factors in high reliability industries

On the occasion of the 2014 Meeting in Lisbon, Portuga