AFRL Delivers Distributed Operations Support Concept to Air Operations Centers Published June 4, 2007 By Human Effectiveness Directorate AFRL/HE WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Air Force Research Laboratory engineers developed and demonstrated Coronet Awareness and Team Synchronization software, subsequently delivering the distributed operations support concept and specifications product to Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command. AFRL developed CATS using work-centered design, an emerging cognitive-based analytic design approach that optimizes human-computer interaction for individuals and teams engaged in highly complex and dynamic work, including command and control operations. Not only is CATS a visionary concept for supporting synchronized, distributed operations, it also demonstrates potential towards ensuring flight safety. The CATS demonstration product provides continuous and highly efficient work support to 10 different users distributed throughout two command centers--namely, the Air Combat Command Air Operations Squadron, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, and the 18th Air Force/Tanker Airlift Control Center, Scott AFB, Illinois. "Coronet" refers to missions wherein one or more tanker aircraft escort combat aircraft as they deploy between any bases worldwide. By supporting work that spans early planning through execution, CATS supports a common Coronet mission objective (i.e., successful planning and execution, along with the assurance that all users remain synchronized despite unanticipated replanning tasks that could occur at multiple points in the planning and execution cycle). The software design centers on the intrinsic, structural elements of the work it supports; however, it is independent of specific work processes and organizational structures and thus remains valid despite any process or organizational changes. This characteristic also enables the CATS framework to be extensible and applicable to similar mission planning and execution domains, where distributed, cross-domain personnel groups need the ability both to work proactively and adaptively and to rapidly replan and selfsynchronize.