Tactical Information Abstraction Framework in Maritime Command and Control

Various operational trends in naval warfare put the shipboard decision making process under pressure. As an example, there is a continuous advance in threat technology and an ongoing shift to crisis management scenario's in littoral waters. Data must be processed under time-critical conditions and, as a consequence, the risk of saturation in building atactical picture increases. In this complex context, the decision-makers need to gain a cognitive awareness of what is going on in their environment, by constructing a hierarchical situation model of this environment. This situation model consists of the basic elements present in the environment, relevant for understanding the situation. Furthermore, this situation model consists of combinations of interrelated elements, spatial and temporal structures, and abstractions expressing the situation at a functional and intentional level. Given our problem domain, maritime command and control, we will call this language according to which the situation model can be structured Tactical Information Abstraction Framework (TIAF). The purpose of this paper is to derive and describe a maritime TIAF. This TIAF can be used as a language in which the result of data fusion can be expressed. If we are able to use a TIAF, according to whicb situation awareness can be structured, in the data fusion process, we can make a smooth match of this process with a situation awareness framework. Thus we will be able to integrate the human element into the design of a decision support system aiding the operators to achieve the appropriate situation awareness.