Operations Room

The Operations Room (also known as Combat Information Center or under the British system, Action Information Centre) is the tactical center of a warship or AWAC aircraft providing processed information for command and control of the near battle space or 'area of operations'. Within other military commands, rooms serving similar functions are called by the similar "Command Information Center" or simply "Command Center"; the number of different terms for spaces that serve much the same function may explain why the plain and generally non-descriptive "Operations Center" is a prevalent term. 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 battle command staff under the control of the CIC officer and his deputies.

Operations Rooms are widely depicted in film and television treatments, frequently with large maps, numerous computer consoles and 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 (PPI scopes) with the ship at the center was making its way into radar displays displacing the A-scope which was simply a time-delayed blip showing a range on an oscilloscope Cathode Ray Tube.

Such polar plots are used routinely in navigation and military action management to display time-stamped range and 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, radar and 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.

The Operations Room in the naval context brings together and manages information on the warship's status, its surroundings and supplies this to the commanding officer, who would generally be present on the nearby bridgeor where plots can be viewed and, if one is aboard, a flag officer who might have their own separate "flag bridge" and Fleet CIC. The 'Operations Room' or 'Operations Center' in other command contexts has the same function, information ordering, gathering, and presentation to the decision makers whether it is to a prime minister, general or local police chief. The types and controls over the collection of information, the communications systems may vary, but the task or mission of providing clarification of the situation and options to the commander remain the same whether the Ops Center is located on a submarine, surface ship or airplane.

Some control, assistance, and coordination functions may be delegated to the operations room 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. CIC is sometimes referred to by Operations Specialists as "Christ I'm Confused".

On aircraft carriers this area is called the combat direction center (CDC). Under British usages, an operations room used for the control of aircraft may be known as an Aircraft Direction Room. Together with the Operations Room they form an "Operations Headquarters". 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. The United States developed their Command Information Center concept circa the winter of 1942–1943 and implemented it in a surge of refitting and retraining during 1943 after post-battle action analyses of the various desperate battles in 1942 from the battle of the Coral Sea through the losses at Ironbottom Sound during the protracted Solomon Islands campaign.