Better together? Investigating new control room configurations and reduced crew size in submarine command and control

The separation of the sound and control rooms in Royal Navy submarines seems to be artefactually reducing the effectiveness of information transition and the overall productivity of the team. A proposed integrated sound and control room was tested in three scenarios: Return to Periscope Depth (RTPD), Inshore Operations (INSO) and Dived Tracking (DT). The activities and communications of a team of serving submariners were recorded in a control room, in a single case study design, comparing co-location and reduced crewing with a baseline of the separate sound and control room configurations that is representative of current submarines. The Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method was used to examine changes in social, information and task networks. In general terms, the co-location of the submariner team led to more efficient communication and completion of tasks. Reducing the crew was more challenging in the higher demand scenarios. Practitioner Summary: There are constraints acting on control rooms, both in terms of physical space and crew size. This study compared conventional control room with co-location and reduced crew in turn. Teamwork improved in the collocated control room but the reduced crew struggled most under conditions of high demand. Abbreviations: DT: dived tracking; EAST: event analysis for systemic teamwork; H: high; INSO: inshore operations; L: low; OOW: office of the watch; OpsO: operations officer; Peri: periscope operator; RTPD: return to periscope depth; RN: royal navy; SoC: sonar controller; SoP: sonar operator; TMA: time-motion analyst.