Performance Measurement during Simulated Air-to-Air Combat

Abstract

Measurement and assessment of operator performance of complex tasks with decisional and psychomotor components of which only ultimate outcome measures are well defined provide difficult methodological challenges. One such task is the practice of air-to-air combat skills in simulated combat environments such as the Air Force Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) or ground-based visual flight simulators. Measurement and assessment of pilot performance in these environments are especially challenging because of the special cognitive and psychomotor skills involved in the freeplay and gamesmanship of two or more competing pilots. A review of the existing approaches to automated aircrew performance measurement was performed. Although the most common measurement models, using positional advantage or disadvantage, provide an adequate performance metric, other measures, such as control manipulation and the management of kinetic and potential energy, must be added to provide a refined performance measurement algorithm.