Learning in the Hot Seat: Mentoring Software to Support JFACC Command

Centralized command and control of air assets has been a goal of many major military operations since the end of World War II. With the ever-increasing importance of air support in modern warfighting tactics, the commander of these assets (the JFACC) must be effective. This is a lofty goal, considering that formal training for this position is brief, and on-the-job training is often unmentored and relatively unstructured. The challenge is to provide a software tool that will mentor a novice JFACC and allow him or her to rise to the new challenges of this command. The same program should also support the command styles of more experienced, senior JFACCs. Klein Associates will leverage its experience with JFACCs and proven methodologies to extract the core decision-making skills in this domain of expertise, and use these to create the concept for an intelligent, flexible software advisor. Based on in-depth Cognitive Task Analysis interviews, a collection of heuristics and knowledge will be elicited. An appropriate architecture for the implementation of the mentoring system will be proposed, along with design recommendations for interface and usability, based on a decision-centered notion of operator support that has proven effective for high-level commanders.