It can involve things like radar and control towers or actual airway traffic and runway control. These people keep track of where airplanes and other air traffic is and help to plot directions for them each to go so that there are no mid air collisions that need to be explained. These people are well trained and ready to take on a relatively high stress position that requires them to be on the ball and thinking well in advance. They need to envision scenarios that might occur based on the data before them and figure ways to avoid the worse case problem that might occur by having one plane fly higher and another lower to avoid a collision or a slight course change to make all the avoidable options fall into place. And they need to be able to do it regularly, quickly and effortlessly without making mistakes.
In short you are going to be in control of the operations. In civilian life this position is likened to the air traffic controller although the data that you will be dealing with in the military can be farther reaching than that in the civilian sector. You will not however be dealing with weather related radar and components in this position but that is about the only thing that will miss your attention.
In the area of combat the position intensifies a bit because you are also going to be in charge of outgoing and incoming aircraft some of whom may be loaded with armament. You may be in charge of handling air strike controlling and there is the ever-present possibility of emergencies arriving, which might necessitate the usage of manual over rides due to problems or other needs where you might not be able to rely on the electronics that we use on a daily basis. That requires that a judgment call be made based on experience and the assimilation of the available data in that particular situation.
Being able to work quickly and decisively under pressure and duress is something that is a mandatory part of the position as is the ability to analyze data quickly and make a split second decision that may result in danger to a large number of people at any given time.
But the job, with all of its issues and the higher than average stress and pressure is actually a very rewarding one that allows you to use your brains and the top of the line and state of the art technology on a daily basis.
