The Utility Helicopters Project Management Office (UH-PMO) tailored the acquisition strategy for the UH-60M BLACK HAWK through the establishment of Crew Station Working Group meetings and Early User Demonstrations to support the developmental test portion of the System Development program phase. This process provided the opportunity to influence the design of the cockpit early in the acquisition cycle and allowed significant user input to the acquisition process.

A reconfigurable cockpit was designed to allow a variety of cockpit hardware and software configurations to be considered within an operationally relevant scenario. The cockpit was placed in the Battlefield Highly Immersive Virtual Environment (BHIVE). This allowed pilots and human factors experts to experiment with cockpit layout designs and perform cockpit and pilot performance evaluations based on situational awareness studies in a realistic operational environment. Tactical vignettes were developed using Modular Semi-Automated Forces (ModSAF) to provide the pilots with simulated missions representing several operational scenarios.

The displays, cockpit and synthetic environment were modified appropriately during successive simulation events based on pilot and subject matter expert feedback to determine the optimum configuration for the UH-60M cockpit.

Data collection methods were implemented to provide verification and validation of the simulation study results. The team employed a head and eye tracker system to gather quantitative data on elements within the pilot's field of regard. The team designed a time-stamped audio and video capture system to correlate the head/eye tracker data back to the recorded events and implemented a Distributed Interactive Simulation Protocol Data Unit capture system to correlate the head/eye tracker data back to relevant events within the operational scenario.

The use of this approach and the collaborative environment allowed the study team to rapidly define and execute a meaningful exercise that provided relevant, immediate and valuable results. The capability to provide early user involvement and feedback early in the design process was crucial to identifying and resolving key cockpit configuration issues for the UH-PMO.