Shadow TUAV Single Operator Consolidation : Display Assessment

Currently, Shadow UAV operations require two people: the Air Vehicle Operator (AVO) and the Mission Payload Operator (MPO). A previous workload study demonstrated that it is possible to combine these two positions such that one person can assume both roles (Appendix A). However, to achieve this consolidation, improved displays in terms of usability and increased automated functionality will be necessary to keep the workload of the single operator to acceptable levels. To demonstrate the types of changes that will need to occur for successful AVO and MPO consolidation, this report focuses on display and automation improvements in the following three areas: systems management, vehicle situation awareness, and payload operations. For each of these areas, a previous display has either been designed or improved upon, always applying human factors design principles. Each of these display redesigns exemplifies how operator workload can be decreased, as well as improve overall mission capability

Characterization and Discrimination of Large Caliber Gun Blast and Flash Signatures

Two hundred and one firings of three 152 mm howitzer munitions were observed to characterize firing signatures of a large caliber gun. Muzzle blast expansion was observed with high-speed (1600 Hz) optical imagery. The trajectory of the blast front was well approximated by a modified point-blast model described by constant rate of energy deposition. Visible and near-infrared (450 - 850 nm) spectra of secondary combustion were acquired at 0.75 nm spectral resolution and depict strong contaminant emissions including Li, Na, K, Cu, and Ca. The O2 (X-b) absorption band is evident in the blue wing of the potassium D lines and was used for monocular passive ranging accurate to within 4 - 9%. Time-resolved midwave infrared (1800 - 6000 cm-1) spectra were collected at 100 Hz and 32 cm-1 resolution. A low dimensional radiative transfer model was used to characterize plume emissions in terms of area, temperature, soot emissivity, and species concentrations. Combustion emissions have 100 ms duration, 1200 - 1600 K temperature, and are dominated by H2O and CO2. Noncombusting plume emissions last 20 ms, are 850 - 1050 K, and show significant continuum (emissivity 0.36) and CO structure. Munitions were discriminated with 92 - 96% classification accuracy using only 1 - 3 firing signature features

The Coils of the Anaconda: America's First Conventional Battle in Afghanistan

Operation Anaconda was America's first conventional battle in Afghanistan. America's first battles did not always turn out as victories. Bunker Hill, Bull Run, Kasserine Pass, Task Force Smith, the Ia Drang Valley-all were hard-fought American fights which ended in retreat or a draw. Operation Anaconda was hardly a defeat. American forces entered a hostile fortified zone, fought the enemy to a standstill and then evicted him. US casualties were comparatively light. Enemy casualties were heavy. At the end of the fighting, the battlefield was in American hands and the enemy did not want to resume the contest. Indeed, the conventional enemy force was shattered. Operation Anaconda involved the forces of seven nations and US Armed Forces personnel from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. It was America's largest and longest light-infantry fight since Vietnam. It was the highest altitude land battle in US history. It was the Canadian Armed Forces first ground combat since the Korean War. Total allied losses were six Afghans and eight Americans killed and 53 Afghans and 86 Americans wounded. Taliban and Al Qaeda forces were smashed, suffering hundreds of casualties and limping away demoralized and disorganized. The battle was clumsy, but decisive. It was won by the combined efforts of American Armed Forces, Afghan ground forces, Canadian Light Infantry and special forces from a variety of nations. It was a pick-up fight that started off badly, but training, good will and professionalism pulled the operation together. It was Al Qaeda's last conventional fight and America's first conventional fight in Afghanistan. It broke the back of Al Qaeda and hastened their departure from the country. Lessons learned in air-ground coordination were successfully applied during the invasion of Iraq. As with any military operation or, indeed, human endeavor, Anaconda had its warts and problems. Operation Anaconda generated several books, most in support of an agenda. What makes this dissertation different is that it: covers the entire battle instead of the first three days; provides a more-balanced view of air power and ground power in the battle; provides a historic view of Afghanistan before the events of 9/11; provides a good enemy picture; identifies the culminating event of the battle and provides an analysis of what went right and what went wrong

The Viet Nam Generation Big Book

An anthology of essays, narrative, poetry and graphics published in lieu of a 1993 issue of Viet Nam Generation, intended to be used as a textbook for teaching about the 1960s. Edited by Dan Duffy and Kali Tal. Contributing editors: Renny Christopher. David DeRose, Alan Farrell. Cynthia Fuchs, William M. King. Bill Shields, Tony Williams, and David Willson

Maritime expressions:a corpus based exploration of maritime metaphors

This study uses a purpose-built corpus to explore the linguistic legacy of Britain’s maritime history found in the form of hundreds of specialised ‘Maritime Expressions’ (MEs), such as TAKEN ABACK, ANCHOR and ALOOF, that permeate modern English. Selecting just those expressions commencing with ’A’, it analyses 61 MEs in detail and describes the processes by which these technical expressions, from a highly specialised occupational discourse community, have made their way into modern English. The Maritime Text Corpus (MTC) comprises 8.8 million words, encompassing a range of text types and registers, selected to provide a cross-section of ‘maritime’ writing. It is analysed using WordSmith analytical software (Scott, 2010), with the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as a reference corpus. Using the MTC, a list of keywords of specific salience within the maritime discourse has been compiled and, using frequency data, concordances and collocations, these MEs are described in detail and their use and form in the MTC and the BNC is compared. The study examines the transformation from ME to figurative use in the general discourse, in terms of form and metaphoricity. MEs are classified according to their metaphorical strength and their transference from maritime usage into new registers and domains such as those of business, politics, sports and reportage etc. A revised model of metaphoricity is developed and a new category of figurative expression, the ‘resonator’, is proposed. Additionally, developing the work of Lakov and Johnson, Kovesces and others on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a number of Maritime Conceptual Metaphors are identified and their cultural significance is discussed