Tools for assessing situational awareness in an operational fighter environment

Three Situational Awareness Rating Scales (SARS) were developed to measure pilot performance in an operational fighter environment. These instruments rated situational awareness (SA) from three perspectives: supervisors, peers, and self-report. SARS data were gathered from 205 mission-ready USAF F-15C pilots from 8 operational squadrons. Reliabilities of the SARS were quite high, as measured by their internal consistency (0.95 to 0.99) and inter-rater agreement (0.88 to 0.97). Correlations between the supervisory and peer SARS were strongly positive (0.89 to 0.92), while correlations with the self-report SARS were positive, but smaller (0.45 to 0.57). A composite SA score was developed from the supervisory and peer SARS using a principal components analysis. The resulting score was found to be highly related to previous flight experience and current flight qualification. A prediction equation derived from available background and experience factors accounted for 73% of its variance. Implications for use of the composite SA score as a criterion measure are discussed.