Effects of mission rehearsal simulation on air-to-ground target acquisition

Traditionally military aviators have prepared for air-to-ground bombing missions with maps and aerial photographs of their targets. Mission rehearsal systems augment these media by allowing pilots to view simulated ingress to their target, as seen from the cockpit perspective. In the present experiment we assessed the benefits of mission rehearsal with a task requiring observers to view recorded approaches to target objects and to detect the target objects as quickly as possible. Results indicated that premission simulations allowed observers to detect target objects at greater stand-off ranges than did study with maps and aerial photographs alone. Actual or potential applications of this research include the deployment of a mission rehearsal system to assist aviators' mission planning.