Posted: 05/13/2014

Background: Interaction Design in multinational environments such as NATO typically means that you are designing for the strategic/operational level. The top concerns tend to be interoperability, high level situation awareness, and collaboration between coalition members. National decisions regarding platform level allocation of task between human and machine are heavily influenced by cultural and political factors such as comfort with technology, risk tolerance, and the way that autonomy is defined or described. These differences become meaningful when nations work together in coalitions or across borders because of rules of engagement, MOU, SOFA and interpretations of international law.Example Scenario: Lethality and Targeting Nation X and Nation Y both have policies that require a human in the loop for all targeting decisions. Nation X is deploying autonomous platforms in support of Nation Y in the home territory of Nation Y. Nation X has determined that the man-in-the-loop requirement is met as long as the targeting decision is made prior to platform deployment. Nation Y requires the man-in-the-loop until there is visual verification that the target can be engaged withoutsignificant collateral damage.Question1: What additional details do you need in this scenario to understand where conflicts might arise between Nation X and Nation Y?Question2: What strategies (other than a typical document style study report) could be used to ensure that decision makers (political/military, strategic & operational) are aware of these types of issues with platforms that are operating in multinational environments?