Human-Centred Automation and the Development of Fighter Aircraft Support Systems

In modern fighter aircraft, several fully automatic or semi-automatic support systems have been implemented so as to aid the pilots in performing their tasks and accomplishing their missions. However, both positive and negative effects of automation have been reported. Amongst the positive effects, decreased physical workload and increased situation awareness have been documented. Amongst the negative effects, researchers have reported out-of-theloop performance problems, such as skill degradation, as well as high mental workload. Research concerning Human-Centred Automation (HCA) has proven that, if carefully implemented, such automation problems can be avoided or diminished. Thus, the concept of HCA ought to be a crucial component in the system development process in the fighter aircraft domain. However, how to incorporate the concept of HCA in this particular domain has not been investigated. This paper presents the results from a literature study regarding how to apply the concept of HCA in the fighter aircraft domain, where focus has been on Simulator-Based Design (SBD) which is a commonly used development method within the field. The results from this study are expected to aid developers of fighter aircraft support systems design with the concept of HCA in mind.