Human Performance Considerations for Non-Traditional Occupations
While the traditional perceptions of a soldier in a foxhole or a sailor at sea still represent viable occupations and demands inside today's US Military, future operations will also count on US-based specialists supporting advanced systems.
Some examples include:
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs): UAVs have been part of the military’s repertoire for over 20 years and, through satellite communications, present the ability for UAV pilots to remotely operate a vehicle anywhere in the world.
Cyber warfare: The United States Cyber Command, a unified command across all branches, is charged with both protecting US and Allied freedom in cyberspace and denying that freedom to any adversaries.
Space Force: This relatively new branch of the military is charged with operating and protecting military satellites, including communication, reconnaissance and GPS. This also includes tracking other satellites and space debris to proactively mitigate against any disruptions that could occur.
All of these operational needs have risen in importance since the turn of the 21st century and are expected to be a crucial component of any future conflict that the United States engages in.
While the demands of these roles may be simplistically summarized as primarily associated with interfacing with computer systems, that does not diminish the unique human performance needs and challenges of the warfighters in these domains.
Warfighters in these new fields are often presented with multiple streams of data and required to quickly process, organize, analyze and prioritize this information. In an era of globalization, the demands of these domains can be around-the-clock.
To keep up with the demands of this role, cognitive training needs to not only support recognizing and acting on patterns and important information quickly, but continuing to do so for extended periods of time. This also demonstrates the need for adequate recuperative sleep and mental recovery, to ensure that focus and attention are optimized while on duty.
Even relatively rudimentary considerations–such as working environment ergonomics, efficient user interface design, and user experience testing for computer interfaces–take on a heightened level of importance when it comes to the optimization and effectiveness of warfighters operating in these new fields of operations.
Warfighters operating in these specialized domains would be well served by the holistic approach to human performance that is being adopted across the US Military. The documented psychological toll of fatigue and burnout for UAV pilots throughout operations in Iraq and Afghanistan represents a real-world example of how vital it is for the military to continue refining how they support these warfighters and optimize their performance.
Space Force’s proposed Holistic Health Approach provides an outline for how they are looking to evaluate the health and wellness of Guardians, including offering wearables to track activity, sleep, and diet, in recognition of the uniqueness of their operational demands.
As the need for US warfighters continues to grow in these new fields of operations, the military will need to ensure that strategies for human performance optimization remain adaptable to operational requirements and the unique demands of the warfighter.