Degraded modes and the 'culture of coping' in military operations: an analysis of a fatal incident on-board HMS Tireless on 20/21 March 2007

Johnson, C.W. (2009) Degraded modes and the 'culture of coping' in military operations: an analysis of a fatal incident on-board HMS Tireless on 20/21 March 2007. In: US Joint Weapons Systems Safety Conference 2009, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, 2009, pp. 3511-3521.

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Abstract

In many military operations, weapons safety is compromised by 'degraded modes of operation'. These are situations in which personnel must find 'work arounds' for the many different routine failures that complicate military life. In most cases, these ad hoc adaptations do not threaten safety. However, if these failures are not addressed they can gradually erode the barriers and other defensive measures that prevent casualties from occurring. This paper analyses a recent accident that led to the deaths of two members of the UK Royal Navy on-board a submarine that was participating in under-ice training and tactical evaluations with the US military. We show that degraded modes of operation not only contributed to the cause of this accident but also complicated the response to the emergency. The key insight from this study is to reduce the tolerance to routine operational failures in many military operations so that personnel are more likely to rectify problems rather than resort to 'work arounds' that jeopardize safety.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Johnson, Professor Chris
Authors: Johnson, C.W.
Subjects:Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science

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