C4i in The Royal Air Force

What is this report about?

This report describes a study that was conducted in order to analyse C4i in the Royal Air Force. Observational data was recorded onboard an E3D AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft, during a mock war. Several different methods (e.g. social network analysis, propositional networks, coordination demand analysis) were used to analyse the observational data to assess the communications and command on board.

What problem does the report address?

Attempts to identify best practice in C4i

What is the benefit of this work?

The work will inform the requirements for the development of demonstrators and provide a way of seeing future developments in C4i operations.

Who should take note of it?

People developing future C4i systems.

What is the report's status?

Unclassified

What are the main issues addressed in the report?

The issue addressed in this research programme was Command and Control within the aircraft.

What are the findings?

The main conclusions were:

The E3 crew use a distributed communications network
Several of the knowledge objects were shared between phases of the mission

What is recommended?

No recommendations. The results of this application of the methodology are intended to form a part of wider data collection and analysis with a view to developing a generic model of C4i.

Why bother?

As part of a larger scale project looking at C4i on various platforms this research will aid the validation of human factors methods used in the C4i environment.