Location Related Patterns

Stationary Patterns

Herringbone Formation two fire teams are alongside one another, with the team on the left facing left while the team on the right faces right. From above, the pattern resembles herringbone twill or a zipper

Coil Formation The soldiers at the front watch forward, those at the back watch behind the team, and those on the left and right sides guard the flanks.

Line Formation Fire teams were often deployed in a line formation when suppressing a known enemy location.

Movement Patterns

File Formation Fire teams often advanced in a single file with the last man in the file looking rearward.

Bounding Overwatch tactic of alternating movement of coordinated units to allow, if necessary, suppressive fire in support of offensive forward movement or defensive disengagement.

Annual Conference of ITAAnnual Conference of ITAACITA 2009ACITA 2009

Discovering Context Changes in Team BehaviourSteven Poltrock (Boeing), Mark Handel (Boeing), Helen Bowyer (IBM UK), Peter Waggett (IBM UK)

Upon first examination the data in these figures may appear chaotic, but

close examination reveals patterns that are linked to

events that occurred in the simulation and were recorded in the context

model.

We observed systematic patterns in the ways the team positioned itself when

stationary, moved through the battlefield, and fired their weapons. We also found systematic patterns in their

spoken communication, which was dominated by the section lead and the

fire team lead

The challenge: Develop methods for automatically constructing and maintaining dynamic models of mission context by interpreting observable team behavior such as a team’s communication, weapon use, and movements.

Blue diamonds represent dispersion in meters

Pink squares represent speed in meters/second

Purple x’s represent linearity.

Black vertical lines & green triangles indicate the boundaries of each context model state

Red vertical lines are the death of a fireteam member

Communication Patterns

Frequency of Lead Communication The section lead or acting section lead spoke four times as often as the other soldiers.

Command Conversation Structure - Most of the lead’s utterances were explanations of what they planned to do or specific orders. Soldiers often orally acknowledged these orders

Geographic Locations locations of objects and areas were described using egocentric reference frames

Status Reports1. The last man in position. 2. Enemy sightings and enemy fire. 3. Smoke grenades deployed. 4. Reloading during suppression fire. 5. Death of a team member. 6. Reports to the Platoon Commander. Cascaded ReportsEnemy LocationsOrigin of enemy fireObject SeenArea of Responsibility Structured Movement Orders

A brief increase in speed as the team adopts and then holds a dispersed

nonlinear configuration as part of the coil formation

They move up the road in file formation to their staging area

Both fire teams go into a herringbone formation

The two fire team leads reconnoiter, increasing dispersion to 20 meters

Team waits in acluster Begin their manoeuvre in file

formation to flank the enemy.

They crawl along seeking a good view of the enemy position

They run for the cover of a wood line, then they continue crawling

forward

The fire team splits into two 2-man teams.

One of these teams assaults the enemy

position and is killed

Weapon Related Pattern

Suppressing Fire - the rate and the method of suppression fire were controlled by the fire team lead.

Speed, dispersion, and linearity of Fire Team 1 in the Fools Road mission.