Human factors and situational awareness issues in fratricidal air-to-ground attacks

In recent military operations advanced technology has increased the potency of coalition war fighters and some authors have high expectations for future technological developments (Hallion, 1997; Werrell, 2003), other are more conservative about the potential gains from technology (O'Hanlon, 2000; Cook et al., 2003; Cook, in press). There is increasing demand for faster sensor-to-shooter times to attack targets of opportunity because Time Sensitive Targeting (TST) is an operational requirement in modern warfare, which makes accurate situation awareness critical. Increasing the speed of response suggests a potential speed-accuracy trade-off and combat identification technologies are required to address this faster response. However, at the same time that sensors are improving the range of weaponry is being extended (Flack, 2002; Cook, in press) creating a capability gap. The key issue in situation awareness is the divergence of capability in targeting, related to coordinates using GPS guidance and the limited capability for identification at long-ranges in manned and unmanned platforms.