Shared Situational Awareness / Understanding: A Key Attribute of

Mission Command Concept for NATO

Mustafa Canan and Bulent Soykan

Old Dominion University

The Problem

• NATO is in a transformation

– Operation related issues

– Six focus area

• Command and Control

– Adopting the mission command concept

Challenges in the transition

• Situational awareness:

– Mostly considered as a cybernetics concept

• The transition from situational awareness to shared awareness:

– Existing models requires theoretical development

• Implementing shared awareness conceptually in mission command concept.

We seek answer for

• What is the context that led to the adoption of mission command in NATO and the level it is incorporated into the doctrinal documents?

• What is the potential of mission command in increasing operational effectiveness?

• Is the shared awareness available data? Or shared awareness is a cognitive entity that changes through processes such as cultural development, education, training, rehearsal etc.

• We establish a dynamic foundation to distinguish the shared situational awareness with proposed substitutes

We seek answer for

NATO’s challenges

• Future operating environment and decision making challenges.

• Operating with multiple organization

– Different Cultures

– Background

– Decision making mechanism

– Varying C2 implementation

The challenges require

• C2 capabilities that work on multi levels at the same time

• A framework that enhance the efficiency of simultaneous usage of different decision mechanism.

Mission Command

• Mission Command is commonly defined as the conduct of military operations through decentralized execution based on mission-type orders.

• NATO constitute different interpretation of mission command

• Mission command needs theoretical development and complementary concepts: such as shared situational awareness

Mission Command and Intent

• Dissemination of intent is important in any C2 model.

• In mission command clear intent manifest a different significance because of the de-centralizes execution.

• Information technologies provide enhancement.

– the influence of other factors such as doctrine and organization, operational business processes, education and training should be taken into account.

Awareness and C2: The human

• Conceptual framework of C2 include:

– Complexity

– Mission

– Situational Awareness

– Shared awareness

– Interoperability

• The common point for all: The Human

The Human Component

• Calusewitz: – Any C2 construct ignores the human element of C2 would

conflict with reality such an extent that for this reason it would be totally useless.

• The ties to the reality accentuates the human component

• The emerging dualities in situations – Command -> Control – Control -> Command

• The intent disseminated – The congruency in understanding the intent govern the

evolution of the situation

Dualities: Situation Theory Perspective

• Operational environment is – Transient, complex, emergent, dynamic, context

specific and shaped by uncertainty

• Situation Theory Perspective – The incorporation of the participant and

maintenance of the observer in the problems

– The practical nature of the problem

– The paradigm captured in Pragmatic Idealism, that lead to the present state of understanding of Situations Theory

Domain of Awareness: Situational Construct

• Reality Domain Perspective (RDP)

• In this formalism complexity defined as: – Probability of making

an erroneous knowledge claim

• This domain formation is a generative process

Domain

D

Reality - R

Perspective

P A’’(d) : the distance between

what is comprehensible and

that which is understood.

A’(d) : The distance between

reality and comprehensibility

A(d) : The distance between

reality and what is

understood

Generative Process

• The concomitant formation of perspective and domain.

• Participatory and observatory – Cognitive involvement of

the individual

Reality - R

Generative

Process

Participant

Observer

Domain

D

Perspective

P

RDP construct and Paradoxes

• Paradoxes:

– Incongruence between understanding of the problem and observed behavior

• RDP recognizes this issue as: – Observed behavior can

correspond to a different perspective in the same domain

– Or a perspective in another domain

Domain

D1

Reality - R

Perspective

P1

Domain

D2

Perspective

P2

RDP and Mission Command

• Mission command is a two way human endeavor – It does tell what to do it, not how to do it

• Three classification of command – Command by direction

– Command by plan

– Command by influence

• Mission Command is an achievable form of command by influence.

Six Principles for Mission Command Employment

• Build cohesive teams through mutual trust

• Create shared understanding

• Provide a clear commander’s intent

• Exercise disciplined initiative

• Use mission orders

• Accept Prudent Risk

Situation Awareness

• the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future

• Decision Making is separated from the situational awareness construct

Shared (Situation) Awareness

• Various definitions – COP? or Interoperability? Or something different

• Is it a proceeding step in the situational awareness

• Shared awareness is a state that exists in the cognitive domain when two or more entities

• shared awareness is an important prerequisite for the ability to synchronize actions in the physical domain in the absence of detailed plan

Nature Shared Awareness

• Shared awareness studies perceive it as substance

• What if the it is shared in action space, however, there is a cognitive disparity

• Groups vs Shared Situational Awareness

– RDP allows to study this concept as mental entity which allows further formalism.

Shared Awareness in Situation Theory Perspective

Contribution of the RDP to Mission Command

• Shared awareness is a perspective in domain awareness

• Categories of Shared awareness

– Conditional Shared Awareness

– Contextual Shared Awareness

– Synthetic Shared Awareness

– Synoptic Shared Awareness

Summary

• Shared awareness is an important feature for the success of Mission Command.

• The suggested RDP construct and its contribution to shared awareness allows to recognized the sources of complexities in the operational environment.

• RDP imposition to the shared awareness provides solution for interoperability and synchronization problems.