The years following the launch in 1949, of the Ergonomics Research Society of England at The Admiralty, was described by the late Professor Brian Shackel as “the decade of military ergonomics”. Certainly the Second World War was a catalyst for ergonomic investigations into a wide range of human-centred issues, from pilot hand-eye coordination and the design of what has classically been referred to as ‘knobs and dials’, to studies of vigilance, fatigue, human performance and psychophysiological endurance in extreme environments. But the rise of military ergonomics in the 1950s was only the very beginning of what has arguably become the backbone of major developments in human-centred pursuits across the globe, employing more ergonomists than any other application area.
Just a cursory glance at the IEHF’s membership database will confirm the extent to which many countries of the world take the contribution of ergonomics and human factors to the design of military systems and processes seriously; the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Australia, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Group (DoD HFE TAG), representing military R&D groups across the USA, to mention but a few.
In the UK, military ergonomics was for many years spearheaded by groups within Army Personnel Research Establishment, the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Institute of Aviation Medicine, all based at Farnborough. However, since the 1980s, both government and industry have embraced ergonomics and human factors, with many of the ‘big names’ – QinetiQ, BAE Systems, Thales, Lockheed Martin, and others – boasting highly active R&D groups. Small consultancies and academic institutions also play a key role in delivering human-centred knowledge to the front line and the UK has taken a leading role in the establishment of multidisciplinary defence consortia, working closely with the MoD’s Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
The current UK Defence Standard for Human Factors is Def Stan 00-250 Human Factors for Designers of Systems. The Standard covers workplace and environment design, training, operations, maintenance and support and many other topics. It is a document that has evolved over many years as a result of the contributions of practising ergonomists in the defence domain.
One of the challenges facing the international defence community is how to keep ergonomics and human factors standards both relevant and current. The breadth of ergonomics activities throughout the defence community today is growing faster than ever before and is no longer confined to issues relating to the basics of equipment, vehicle and land/sea/air platform design. Ergonomists regularly contribute to the design, evaluation and implementation of novel training and simulation technologies, future bomb disposal robots and other unmanned systems, innovative infantry weapons design, integrated on-body sensor systems, multimodal wearable or portable computers, and even cyber warfare.
Today, the men and women of the world’s armed forces face the most demanding challenges of all occupations, working with some of the most safety-critical systems on the planet, dealing with extremes of temperature, climate and pressure and having to cope with a myriad of mission-critical information sources, all whilst under the threat of imminent danger. Without a strong ergonomics or human factors input, both at the early conceptual stages of design and throughout the lifecycle of the military system, our military personnel would be unable to cope with the ever-changing qualities of an intelligent and highly adaptive adversary – the hallmark of 21st Century ‘asymmetric’ warfare.
Print 
PDF