I saw that Space Shuttle landing video that was kicking around recently. In that they also had explicit "I agree" responses to any observation like "You're a bit below flight path". Quick, positive acknowledgment of anomalous events or deviations. Seemed really ... sane.

do you happen to have the link for that video (and related discussion if posted on HN)?

Maybe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4cfIyNvts ?

I didn't hear any "I agree" in that one.

I found this one which does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAaMuTRGP6k&t=1h7m30s

Does the phrase "I'll show you" also have a predefined special meaning? He seems to repeat it quite often.

I heard that as "I show you xx". One guy is flying with his head up, the other one talking most is monitoring with his head in the instruments, and helping the pilot flying getting confident data.

Remember they're driving 1970's technology, redundant everything, and they all grew up flying "steam gauges", where the culture includes tapping on the glass to make sure the needle didn't stick. They want to compare every sensor output for sanity so they can disregard one if needed.

This vid is also the source of cockpit audio for the FSim shuttle simulator game if you like this stuff.

So "I show you X" stands for "I see X on the instruments" (as opposed to just stating X as a fact)?

Yeah. Oh and Houston did the same thing, calling out the 180 and the 90 on the HAC - heading alignment circle. Just helping them out with their radar indication.

PS - here's what happens when they got a bad instrument and didn't catch it: http://www.avweb.com/news/safety/183035-1.html

What an awesome video; saving for future reference. We have much to learn from this in IT.

Missed this reply, sorry! It was in this one I think towards the end: https://youtu.be/Jb4prVsXkZU

There's a mixture of positive confirmation and criticism being shared. eg around the sixteen minute mark:

    Pilot: Your radar's good. My radar's good.
    Commander: I agree.

Then 16:37:

    Pilot: You're going just a little bit high.
    Commander: I agree.

"I intend to" is actually a phrased deliberately used a lot during military mission briefings. I always wondered why, I guess it's deliberate.

The military uses "intention" rather than "I will" because they understand that no plan survives contact with the enemy. It is also higher level so that when exhausted, stressed subordinates find themselves in life threatening circumstances the most important thing they need to remember is the intent. If they forget steps 1-5 of the plan but recall the intent they can't go that badly wrong in using their initiative.

There's also the distinction between specific orders - "you are to". Knowing the commander's intent, and his commander's intent (known as 1 Up and 2 Up) enables Mission Command, the concept of giving latitude to subordinates to achieve the mission in the best way possible within the confines and direction given to them.

Finally there's the ritual of it, NATO forces expect to operate within multi-national structures where English won't be a first language. There is a "NATO sequence of orders" which should be roughly followed. It means everyone knows the structure of what is coming up and when in the brief - so you don't get people asking questions about equipment when the limitations are being explained, they know that comes later. Opening, especially from a junior officer, with "my intention is" is essentially like having a schema definition at the start of a document - it defines the structure of what is coming for those who are going to be parsing it.

Much better answer! I recognise a lot of that.