1995 TACCSF cooperative identification study

Throughout history, the warfighter has used many rudimentary means to identify his enemy during battle. As technology progressed and the battlefield grew to include the skies, the fighter pilot required more advanced methods to identify friends and enemies at longer ranges during combat. In 1992, Wright Laboratory (WL) (now part of Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) located at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH) conducted a Combat ID (CID) study at the request of Air Combat Command (ACC). The study investigated the impact an improved intrinsic non-cooperative target recognition (NCTR) capability onboard an F-15 fighter aircraft had on mission effectiveness. WL collected data for the study from a man-in-the-loop (MITL) simulation at the Theater Air Command and Control Simulation Facility (TACCSF), located at Kirtland AFB, NM. The results from that study have been well documented and are mentioned briefly in this paper. Subsequently, in 1995, ACC and the CID Integrated Management Team (IMT), located at Hanscom AFB, MA, asked WL to conduct a MITL cooperative ID system study to complement the findings from the 1992 CID study. WL used the TACCSF for this study also.