Measurement of air traffic control situational awareness enhancement through radar support toward operating envelope expansion of an unmanned aerial vehicle

Current airspace restrictions in Kabul limit the potential capability of the tactical unmanned air vehicle (TUAV) within the area of operations of the Kabul multinational brigade. An experiment was conducted using the OneSAF Testbed Baseline and a range of virtual simulations to examine the impact of five different radar options and three different information displays on the level of airspace situational awareness (SA) of the air traffic control officer (ATCO). The use of SAGAT, SART and NASA-TLX techniques were effective in determining differences in workload, situational awareness and understanding. Simultaneous data capture through shared EXCEL workbooks and VBA macros permitted near real time analysis. The Mann-Whitney U test, used due to the nature and limited size of the data sets, showed that any of the radars examined in this experiment would assist in the establishment of positive control over TUAV operations in the controlled airspace over Kabul.