  We compare and contrast situation awareness in cyber warfare and in
conventional, kinetic warfare. Situation awareness (SA) has a far longer
history of study and applications in such areas as control of complex
enterprises and in conventional warfare, than in cyber warfare. Far more is
known about the SA in conventional military conflicts, or adversarial
engagements, than in cyber ones. By exploring what is known about SA in
conventional, also commonly referred to as kinetic, battles, we may gain
insights and research directions relevant to cyber conflicts. We discuss the
nature of SA in conventional (often called kinetic) conflict, review what is
known about this kinetic SA (KSA), and then offer a comparison with what is
currently understood regarding the cyber SA (CSA). We find that challenges and
opportunities of KSA and CSA are similar or at least parallel in several
important ways. With respect to similarities, in both kinetic and cyber worlds,
SA strongly impacts the outcome of the mission. Also similarly, cognitive
biases are found in both KSA and CSA. As an example of differences, KSA often
relies on commonly accepted, widely used organizing representation - map of the
physical terrain of the battlefield. No such common representation has emerged
in CSA, yet.
