If you call yourself a professional ASO, are you able to identify what-is-what 70 to 80% of the time while collecting information real-time? Based on your industry sector (commercial, public safety or defense), can you identify, describe, and predict the actions of the primary objects in your view be it from an active or passive sensor?
An ASO is“Top-Gun” material if he or she can go beyond saying “I see something interesting” to “I see X and Y together and if this continues Z will happen,” i.e., real-time airborne Sherlock Holmes skills.
The reason I’m posting this blog is based on a note from a fellow ASOGer Grant Reid highlighting a skill-set area that defines an ASO. Here’s part of his message that got me thinking about this post. (Also, strip out the defense aspect of his message and replace it with your specific target sets, e.g., agricultural targets/surroundings, urban area structures/surroundings/human behavior patterns, etc. when you read his point):
“Note for ASO is ship, aircraft and weapon system recognition. I know my old boss will read this and agree that although your primary job is to be an integral part of the flight crew, you aren’t worth a hill of beans if you can’t pick out the differences between Russian and Chinese systems. I remember when going thru training in Comox, that my wife knew ships, aircraft and weapon systems just as well as I did (she ran the slide deck for the guys on my course at night - she was very unforgiving).
Modern non-military ASO deal with the same in that they must know every type of vehicle identifiable from the air.
The point is to know your job and do it to the best of your ability.”
I agree with Grant, there is more to the ASO job than just operating systems, checking-off the target deck and making sure that each mission lands safely. It consists of knowing your collection operating environment, i.e., in some ways being an airborne analyst. An ASO should develop a sense of knowing what is important, what ‘matters,’ and it comes from knowing your environment intimately.
What do you think?
ASOG Desk Editor (Patrick)
Comments
Hi Patrick. The military v. civilian sides of the job really are, IMHO, like comparing apples and oranges. Sensor operation aside lets look at it from a business planning perspective. The military side does not have to "make money" in order to do their job, therefore they have much more latitude to train. We flew on dedicated training flights, carried out dedicated ground training days in the classroom and had the convenience of having aan operational mission simulator to train on. All of these things are very cost intensive to a private company who is trying to fulfil a contract, make money and pay their employees. Lets face it if a private contractor isnt flying, they arent making money. The downside of that is the training bill seems to fall by the wayside in favour of operations. On the upside theres no experience like operational experience. So the military can train and then go on ops where they can hone and perfect their skills, while a contractor needs to both have a contract AND exercise that contract in order to remain proficient.
Gary, your last para is spot on! It's a never ending effort to be ahead-of-the aircraft. Just me, from my perspective, the civilian side of our profession still needs development in this way of thinking. What training, leadership and culture methods/efforts did the RCAF try to use in this area?
------Break, Break-----
Grant, now that you've been in both worlds working with L-3 WESCAM...what should training organizations and commerical firms focus on (programs, efforts etc.) when it comes to growing their ASOs?
I agree with Grant on this one. Operating Sensors is only a portion of the job. Being the best sensor operator is great but as a professional ASO you can bring SO much more to the fight/mission. Being able to provide input to the crew WRT what threats are out there, knowing the mission parameters, knowing your aircraft, developing your SA so that you can tell the mission commander where to be, what to look for and your suggestions for the best way to complete the mission successfully. Thats how we trained when Grant and I were in the RCAF.
I found as I got more experience as an Airborne Electronic Sensor Operator that the only way to keep these skills up was to train and fly, learn my SOP's, get with a flight engineer from time to time and go over an aircraft system, talk to the techs about a snag that we had and how they fixed it, etc etc. All of that on top of keeping up with new software and hardware upgrades, new tactics, techniques and procedures and enemy capabilites. Its a never ending process.
I whole heartedly agree. Mission Planning and analysis of scenarios based on your accrued knowledge of the environment is paramount to effectively manage a threat/intelligence environment. I often tell students that failure to properly mission plan, or dismissing it altogether, is reckless if not highly negligent and endangering. You should know what your up against and how it works, so that you can identify, assess, confirm, and report/engage in a timely manner.
R/
Tim
PS- I love the P-3 SS3 station shot. :)
Hi Patrick:
Love that picture....Pretty familiar with the screens....(:>)...
GJD