The Impact of Digital Display on Ground-Based Air Defence Command Post

The impact of access to information through advanced information and communication technology was assessed in a study involving the Ground-Based Air Defence Command Post (GBAD CP). At present the GBAD CP obtains information about aircraft and their movements by HF radio. In the study, digital data was directly transmitted to the GBAD CP. Its effect on the situation awareness (SA) of the Command Post Officer (CPO) and Detachment Commander (Det Comd) was investigated. The Direct Questioning Technique, based on the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (Endsley, 1995a), was used to measure the SA of the CPOs and Det Comds. With this method, the operators were asked specific questions relating to the situation at various times during the exercise. The questions covered three levels of SA, namely perception (level 1), comprehension (level 2) and projection (level 3). The responses were scored against the real situation by a Subject Matter Expert. The result of the study provided strong evidence that the CPOs’ SA was enhanced by the digital display in terms of the air war aspects. The result also suggested that the Det Comd controlled by the CP with the digital display had higher SA than that controlled by the CP operating with radios only.