Cognitive and psychomotor requirements for operators of military UAS

Kurzfassung

In military contexts, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) efficiently fulfil reconnaissance duties and increase the safety of military personnel. Operators of HALE/MALE (High/Medium Altitude Long Endurance) systems are often recruited among pilots of manned military aviation. These dual careers in manned and unmanned aviation offer some advantages, but otherwise, it requires more staff for manned aircraft, which is difficult to find on today’s competitive labour market, and the training is cost-intensive. As yet, little is known about the specific demands on operating UAS personnel. The aim of the present study, conducted in cooperation with the German Air Force’s Centre of Aerospace Medicine, is to empirically assess the demands of the UAS operating positions within the German Bundeswehr and to develop specific requirement profiles. A sample of n=192 UAS operators and sensor/payload operators of the German Air Force system Heron, and the German Army systems Luna and KZO completed an extended version of the Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS). The F-JAS consists of 73 scales, to assess the required abilities and skills from cognitive, psychomotor, physical, sensory and interactive/social domains and was extended for two additional scales (operational monitoring and vigilance) developed at the German Aerospace Center. With respect to requirements in cognitive and psychomotor domains, our results show a large degree of overlap between the systems, but differences between the operating positions (aerial vehicle operator vs. sensor/payload operator). Further distinctions between the systems on basis of the single F-JAS scales will be reported, and implications for future research will be discussed.