Time Critical Targeting Concept of Operations (CONOPS) Interactions

In this paper, we consider Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for engaging Time Critical Targets (TCTs) and quantify the feasibility of those CONOPS. The process involves defining the scope of the CONOPS, developing a plausible TCT CONOPS based on existing practices, and simulating the dynamics of the CONOPS to obtain a better understanding of the inherent interactions within such a complex, dynamic and concurrent system involving people, sensors, and computational processing. Further, we consider a case study of the undertaking of the complete TCT CONOPS from a Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) and the implications for crew structure. This work should be of interest to those working on TCTs, Command and Control (C2) systems, and surveillance and reconnaissance issues. While the examples presented here are USAF-centric, the techniques proposed should be applicable to a wide range of C2 problems where response time is a critical factor.