View source for Engineering:Combat information center

{{Short description|Room in a warship or aircraft that functions as a tactical center}}
[[File:Radar2.gif|200px|thumb|[[Earth:Plan position indicator|Plan position indicator (PPI)]] display showing polar display and radar sweep. A real radar display would show hard terrain features and look recognizably map-like, and from the sea, match well with land features of local nautical charts matching and sending strong clean radar echos back to the ship at sea.]]
[[File:Sturmfront auf Doppler-Radar-Schirm.jpg|200px|thumb|[[Earth:Plan position indicator|Plan position indicator (PPI)]] display showing Doppler radar weather data]]

A '''combat information center''' ('''CIC''') or '''action information centre''' ('''AIC''') is a room in a [[Engineering:Warship|warship]] or [[Engineering:Airborne early warning and control|AWACS]] aircraft that functions as a tactical center and provides processed information for command and control of the near battlespace or area of operations. Within other military commands, rooms serving similar functions are known as [[Social:Command center|command center]]s.

Regardless of the vessel or command locus, each CIC organizes and processes information into a form more convenient and usable by the commander in authority. Each CIC funnels communications and data received over multiple channels, which is then organized, evaluated, weighted and arranged to provide ordered timely information flow to the [[Social:Battle command|battle command]] staff under the control of the CIC officer and his deputies.

==Overview==
CICs are widely depicted in film and television treatments, frequently with large maps, numerous computer consoles and [[Engineering:Radar|radar]] and sonar repeater displays or consoles, as well as the almost ubiquitous grease-pencil annotated polar plot on an edge-lighted transparent plotting board. At the time the CIC concept was born, the projected map-like polar display ([[Earth:Plan position indicator|PPI scopes]]) with the ship at the center was making its way into radar displays displacing the [[Engineering:Radar display#A-Scope|A-scope]] which was simply a time-delayed blip showing a range on the [[Engineering:Cathode ray tube|cathode ray tube]] display of an [[Engineering:Oscilloscope|oscilloscope]].

Such polar plots are used routinely in navigation and military action management to display time-stamped range and [[Earth:Bearing (angle)|bearing]] information to the CIC decision makers. A single 'mark' (''range and bearing'' datum) bears little actionable decision-making information by itself. A succession of such data tells much more, including whether the contact is closing or opening in range, an idea of its speed and direction (these are calculable, even from bearings-only data, given sufficient observations and knowledge of tactics), the relation to other contacts and their ranges and behaviors. Harvesting such data sets from the polar plots and computers (Common to sonar, [[Engineering:Radar|radar]] and [[Engineering:Lidar|lidar]]) allows the CIC crew to plot the data correctly on a chart or map at the correct range and bearing, and to calculate the course and speed of the contact accurately, giving the set a vast expansion to include future positions, given unchanged relative courses and relative speeds. 
[[File:HMS Cavalier operations room.jpg|thumb|left|1960s vintage operations room aboard the Royal Navy destroyer {{HMS|Cavalier|R73|6}}]]

A CIC in a naval context brings together and manages information on the warship's status and its surroundings, and supplies this to the commanding officer, who would generally be present on the nearby [[Engineering:Bridge (nautical)|bridge]] or where plots can be viewed and, if one is aboard, a flag officer who might have their own separate flag bridge and fleet CIC. CICs or operations centers in other command contexts have the same function: information ordering, gathering, and presentation to the decision makers. The methods and materials may vary, but the provision of information & options to a leader remain the same.

Some control, assistance, and coordination functions may be delegated to the CIC staff or directly to the CIC officer, such as overseeing the mode and prioritization of sensor resources such as radar monitoring, targeting, or sonar activities; communications to external sources and assets.

On US [[Engineering:Aircraft carrier|aircraft carrier]]s this area is called the '''combat direction center''' (CDC). The United States developed their Command Information Center concept circa the winter of 1942&ndash;1943 and implemented it in a surge of refitting and retraining during 1943 after post-battle action analyses of battles in 1942 from the battle of the Coral Sea through the losses at Ironbottom Sound during the protracted Solomon Islands campaign.

In British usage this area may be known as an '''aircraft direction room''';<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%200384.html?tracked=1 ''Flight'' 1957]</ref> together with the operations room they form an "operations headquarters".<ref>''Flight'' 1957 referring to the carrier {{HMS|Ark Royal|R09|6}}</ref> The British aircraft direction room evolved from the fighter direction office, a primitive means of controlling an aircraft carrier's aircraft through radio and radar. In September, 1942, HMS ''Victorious'' underwent a refit that included installation of an aircraft direction room.

==Development==
[[Image:Combat Information Center of USS Spruance (DD-963), in 1975 (USN 1162165).jpg|thumb|CIC of USS ''Spruance'', 1975.]]
[[Image:CIC-USS-CarlVinson-2001.jpg|thumb|CIC of USS ''Carl Vinson'', 2001.]]
[[Image:CG-47 CIC.png|thumb|Layout of the Combat Information Center of early Aegis cruisers.]]

The idea of such a centralized control room can be found in science fiction as early as ''The Struggle for Empire'' (1900).  Early versions were used in World War II; according to Rear Admiral Cal Laning, the idea for a command information center was taken “specifically, consciously, and directly” from the spaceship ''Directrix'' in the Lensman novels of E. E. Smith, Ph.D.,<ref>Unpublished letter from John W. Campbell to E. E. Smith, pages 1–2, Dated 11 June 1947 in the collection of Verna Smith Trestrail</ref> and influenced by the works of his friend and collaborator Robert Heinlein, a retired American naval officer.<ref>''Robert A. Heinlein'' by William H. Patterson, Jr., volume 1, chapter 24</ref> After the numerous losses during the various naval battles off Guadalcanal during the war of attrition that was part and parcel of the Solomon Islands campaign and the Battle of Guadalcanal, the United States Navy employed operational analysis, determined many of their losses were due to procedure and disorganization, and implemented the Combat Information Centers, building on what was initially called "radar plot" according to an essay ''CIC Yesterday and Today'' by the Naval Historical Center.<ref name="CIC-Y&T">{{cite web| url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/cic-combat-information-center-yesterday-today.html |title=CIC &#91;Combat Information Center |work= Naval History and Heritage Command |publisher=Department of the Navy |location=Washington DC |date=August 31, 2017}}</ref> That same article points out that in 1942 radar, radar procedure, battle experiences, needs, and the operations room all grew up together as needs developed and experience was gained and training spread, all in fits and starts, beginning with the earliest radar uses in the Pacific battles starting with the Coral Sea, when radar gave rise to the first tentative attempt to vector an Air CAP to approaching Japanese flights, maturing somewhat before the Battle of Midway, where post-battle analysis of Coral Sea's results had given more confidence in the abilities and processes of a centralized control room.

The Naval History & Heritage Command essay notes that growing the responsibility of the nascent CIC organization necessarily upset the old order of doing, who was reporting to whom, and most of all, of communications protocols where now CICs within a task group were, when possible, joined in permanent communication links to even the lowliest [[Engineering:Destroyer escort|destroyer escort]] or fleet auxiliary, adding the eyes and reports of their lookouts to those of similar watch-standers about the fleet as a whole. In short the CICs continually grew for a time, superseding old organizational structure and supplanting them with a new system filtering and shaping information to a newly empowered command group. The tasks and facilities put at the service of the CICs also grew within a ship. While in 1943 a destroyer CIC might just have been configured for anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare tasks, by the Battle of the Philippine Sea when set out as radar pickets had to undertake forward air controller (FAC) functions and somehow jam in air search radar and anti-air action control functions.<ref name="CIC-Y&T"/>

From that beginning, were added the corporate experiences of the continuing series of naval air and naval surface actions around and about the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands campaign. By late 1943 when the first new construction carriers of the ''Essex''-class fleet carriers and the ''Independence''-class light carriers with many associated fleet vessels had reinforced the refitted USS ''Enterprise'' (CV-6) and the USS ''Saratoga'' (CV-3), the U.S. Navy was prepared to take the offensive and began evolving CIC procedures and operational doctrine for a fleet of carriers.<ref name="CIC-Y&T"/>

There has been an evolution of [[Engineering:Electronics|electronics]] ([[Computer|computer]]) equipment and [[User interface|user interface]]s used in such installations over time. Modern CIC equipment is built up from many connected [[Embedded system|embedded system]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-s/dd963l.htm |title=USN Ships--Interior Working Spaces on board USS Spruance |website=www.history.navy.mil |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010711113057/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-s/dd963l.htm |archive-date=2001-07-11}} </ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.turbophoto.com/Aboard-Uss-Carl-Vinson26-32703.php |title=Aboard Uss Carl Vinson26 Stock Photo Image<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2008-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417233010/http://www.turbophoto.com/Aboard-Uss-Carl-Vinson26-32703.php |archive-date=2009-04-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
* List of established military terms
* Glossary of military abbreviations
* Command and control
* [[Engineering:Comprehensive Display System|Comprehensive Display System]]
* Joint Tactical Information Distribution System
* [[Engineering:Mission control center|Mission control center]]
* [[Engineering:Naval Tactical Data System|Naval Tactical Data System]]
* Situation room
* [[Social:Tactical communications|Tactical communications]]
* USS ''Moosehead'' (IX-98), a destroyer converted into a floating CIC simulator during WW2 to train CIC personnel

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/cic-combat-information-center-yesterday-today.html CIC room (World War II)]
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/cic--combat-information-center-manual-radsix.html CIC manual (World War II)]
* [http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/USNAVY/CHAPTER-16-G.html Naval Ordnance and Gunnery, 1958]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927174631/http://sterett.net/Public/31Ship_tour/cic.htm USS Sterett, CIC 1968 -1991]
*[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pound650m-navy-warship-arrives-in-portsmouth-1518167.html?action=Popup&ino=6 Modern RN Ops Room]

; US Navy Surface Warfare Officer School – Division Officer Training
* [http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/swos/stu2/STU01.html Surface CIC]
* [http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/swos/stu2/STU10.html Air CIC]
* [http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/swos/stu2/STU13.html Sub-Surface CIC]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Operations Room}}
[[Category:Military computers]]

{{Sourceattribution|Combat information center}}