Navy Unmanned Maritime Systems Platoon Leadership Fatigue Level Negatively Impacts Platoon Performance During Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures Missions

Abstract

Navy Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS) operators conducting expeditionary mine countermeasures (ExMCM) play a critical role in ensuring safe passage of the fleet. ExMCM operations are mentally and physically demanding, requiring UMS operators to sustain attention over long periods of time, contend with operating under various sea state conditions, and make accurate decisions under risk. This report summarizes findings from a field study of a UMS platoon completing its Final Evaluation Event (FEE) during Basic Phase Assessment training. The FEE assesses the platoon's competency in completing tasks required for ExMCM operations (i.e., open water operations; mission planning; launching, monitoring, and recovering unmanned underwater vehicles; force protection; and post-mission analysis). The platoons Leading Chief Petty Officer was compromised due to extreme fatigue, which had an outsized negative impact on platoon performance despite lower ranking platoon members maintaining alertness scores well within the range of normal tolerances. The platoons average alertness score was significantly lower during the FEE compared with the pre-FEE baseline. There was slight, yet clinically relevant, evidence of sleep loss during the FEE. Both pre-FEE and FEE total sleep times were <7 hours, which is the recommended amount of sleep per night to recover to the adequate levels of alertness necessary for carrying out tasks without errors. Sleep efficiency and quality actually improved during the FEE, largely driven by the lower ranked platoon members. Platoon leadership plays a critical role in UMS mission performance and ExMCM. Our results suggest that platoon leaders should especially monitor and take measures to address their personal fatigue state to ensure that their fatigue levels do not have a negative impact on the platoons overall performance.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 07, 2023
Accession Number
AD1203017

Entities

People

  • Brandon J. Schrom
  • Max K. Smith
  • Rachel R Markwald
  • Timothy L. Dunn

Organizations

  • Leidos
  • Naval Health Research Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical Research
  • Cognitive Science
  • Configuration Management
  • Countermeasures
  • Education
  • Educational Psychology
  • Efficiency
  • Force Protection
  • Group Dynamics
  • Leadership
  • Open Water
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Situational Awareness
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Training
  • Underwater Vehicles
  • Unmanned
  • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Mental Health of Military Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Risk Factors, Prevalence, Symptoms, and Treatment.
  • Military Training and Readiness Simulation

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy