I__. - International Military Testing Association

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COMBAT VEHICLE COMMANDER'S SITUATIONAL AWARENESS:
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
Carl W. Lickteig
Major Milton E. Koger
U.S. Army Research Institute
Field Unit-Fort Knox
Captain Thomas F. Heslin
2nd Squadron, 12th Calvary Regiment
Fort Knox, Kentucky
Abstract
The ability to "see the battlefield" is critical to
successful execution of the battle. This precept is true at all
echelons including commanders of small units and individual
weapon systems. To train and foster this ability, however,
methods for assessing and enhancing the commander's situational
awareness (SA) are required. Recent efforts (Endsley, 1988;
Fracker, 1988) have focused on the development of objective
measures of fighter pilots SA. This paper extends this effort to
measures of SA for land combat vehicle commanders.
As part of the Army Research Institute's (ARI) program of
research in support of future Combat Vehicle Command and Control
(CVCC) systems, small unit commander's SA was identified as a
potentially important measure of system effectiveness. Parallel
forms of two SA instruments were developed for objective
assessment of a commander's perception, comprehension, and
projection of the battlefield situation. This paper provides a
description of these SA instruments and their utilization in
support of the CVCC simulation-based program.
Background
The combatant's SA represents his knowledge of the world and
his role in it. SA includes both lower and higher order mental
processes ranging from the simple perception of individual
elements of the situation to an assessment of their meaning and
impact on immediate and overall mission objectives. Endsley's
model of SA details three distinct levels--perception;
comprehension, and projection--included in the following
definition of SA: ". ..the perception of the elements in the
environment within a volume of space and time, the comprehension
of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near
future" (Endsley, 1988, p. 97).
For ground forces, SA is more commonly described as the
commander's ability to "see" the battlefield in relation to his
mission and the overall mission. Combined arms combat,
particularly for ground systems, entails coordination and support
of multiple units. Situational awareness for combined arms
commanders must include, perhaps more so than for combat pilots,
the context of the combined mission.
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