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

Traditionally military aviators have prepared for air-to-ground bombing mis sions 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 experim ent we assessed the benefits of mission rehearsal with a task requiring obs ervers to view recorded approaches to target objects and to detect the targ et objects as quickly as possible. Results indicated that premission simula tions allowed observers to detect target objects at greater stand-off range s than did study with maps and aerial photographs alone. Actual or potentia l applications of this research include the deployment of a mission rehears al system to assist aviators' mission planning.