Supporting Planning and Situation Awareness in Army Command and Control

Abstract

The planning process is the initial basis for tactical maneuvers and combat operations. Though plans are driven by the intent of the commanding officer, the quality of plans are heavily dependent upon the level of situation awareness of officers involved in the process. To support Army planning in command and control, it is important for us to understand planning and the challenges to providing the critical information underlying it. We conducted a theoretical investigation of maneuvers planning in combat situations. We used results from goal-directed task analysis, and insights from observations of Army training exercises and experiments, to make inferences on the activities carried out in preparation for tactical maneuvers. Our goal was to identify major characteristics of the planning process in current and future Army force structures. We were also interested in identifying human factors issues associated with planning in a rapidly evolving environment, and generating computer-based design concepts to support situation awareness and decision making.