Wow. Quite a thread, I'm not sure where to start. You could write a book on this subject alone. Let me say I don't think it really matters much how you define things except in a training environment where you're trying to convey certain information in a very specific way to generate an overall understanding. That said, there are many, many different definitions in use even today although the military has tried to standardize. Terminology can vary not just between the services but between squadrons or even sections.
In the Navy the black shoes call things that float "ships". Naval Aviators call them "boats". USAF call airplanes "ships". Go figure. What's the point? The point is do you understand what's going on? not do you have a precise definition that everyone agrees on.
Mace's opinion is this: All awareness occurs on a sliding scale starting from the "big picture" to small. I don't care much if someone wants to call this SA or TA or Assessment as there are many ways and opinions about how to define this. Generally, we (the Navy) described SA which as the sliding scale of awareness. These other finesse points mean little in combat. What does matter is can this type of knowledge be adequately convied to students? The chart that someone posted looks to me to be a USAF training product as they tend to break everything down to detailed analytical processes and I'd bet it's followed by dozens of other slides explaining each of the individual parts. In the Navy, at least while I was in, we might pop up that slide, apologize for the eyestrain and then talk about awareness in a more generalized common sense sort of way. I guess you could say that rather than processes and flow charts we tended to use less formal "tribal knowledge" techniques. Which way is better? Don't know, don't care, both work.
The question isn't one of definitions, it's how do you keep track of everything? The simple answer is you don't. While fighter pilots and Naval Aviators are godlike, they are not omniscient. The real question is how do you keep track of everything that is important? What has to be understood is that you cannot simply boresight the immediate task unless that immediate task requires all of your focus. This is best illustrated by the old canard "aviate, navigate, then communicate". It's called prioritization and it's kinda stupid to run into a mountain while figuring out what to say on the radio (although it certainly happens). You've got to focus first on the most important thing and that's to fly the airplane. The best and most successful pilots are those that can manage their focus to maintain overall awareness of the situation while dealing with the alligator closest to the boat. The guy who bugs west when his home base is east is an example of someone that has poor ability to know what's going on and plan ahead. Same thing with the guy that goes vertical in the middle of a furball or gets in a 10 lap flat lufberry on the deck with a dozen enemy around.
True war story: A flight of F18's were headed toward their target during Desert Storm. The E-2 calls a bandit 30 miles. The Hornets had already switched their systems into Air to Ground mode (most were former A7 pilots) so their radars were mapping the ground not searching the air although they were more than 40 miles from the target. Nobody heard the initial calls although the E2 is clear as a bell on their HUD tapes. The E2 makes several more calls in an increasingly urgent tone. 25 miles, 20 mils, 15 MILES, 10 MILES. Finally, one of the Hornets gets out of his air-to-ground focus long enough to hear the 10 mile call, switches to air-to-air and promptly launches a Sidewinder (his short range weapon)....well outside of range, which misses of course. Then he switches to Sparrow (his long range weapon) and fires pretty close to minimum range and manages to get the kill. Although he got a medal for the kill the whole group was a classic case of lack of SA.
How about this question: Who's the best fighter pilot? The guy who always wins a 1v1 or the guy that successfully completes the mission and survives? It's easy, it's the guy who knows how to get the mission done without dying (or causing other friendlies to die). 1v1 however is still taught and is still a very strong measure as to how good of a pilot he is. 1v1's are a blast. There is nothing quite like going head to head with another guy but what does the result actually mean? In a lot of ways, 1v1 training can create problems. The first is ego. It's man against man so there can be a lot of chest thumping, grunting, and counting coup. You see this all the time in AH on ch200...."ugggha ggugga munnga boogga DA." Since ego can become involved, it can lead to very stupid mistakes. Also, a lot of guys that are great at 1v1's tend to do the same thing in combat...try to immediately turn a mission into an opportunity for a 1v1. We sometimes call it "dropping anchor". Rather than taking face shots (yes, the dreaded HO in RL) and forcing the bandits away from a strike package and then continuing your escort some guys will immediately yank on hard turns leaving the strike package to continue unescorted. Bad juju. Ego is such an issue that TOPGUN refuses to say Maverick did this and Joker did that, despite what the movie said. Sorry to disappoint but there is also no "TOPGUN Trophy". It's the F-14 did this and the A-4 did that and nobody got a trophy at the end. As a mission commander or strike lead I'd take a guy that understood the mission over some 1v1 hotshot who didn't. Why is it taught? Obviously, you could end up in one but that's not what you want in RL because RL is a multi-threat environment. The main reason is that it teaches you how to maneuver your plane to the absolute limits.
Alright that's all real world, how does it apply to AH? It depends. Do you want to fight in the most realistic fashion and replicate RL missions and threats? Create missions, fly in sections and divisions, do fighter sweeps, escort bombers, allocate targets, take down ack, capture towns. You want to just fight? Then hunt someone down and get in a fight. Fly an A20 as a fighter against a Zeke or knife fight with a 262. The nice thing about AH is that you can do all of this. Just have fun.
Just my opinion...Peace and Love!
<S>
Mace
