The test with the most going on at once, so learn every target type before the day.
What the test is
The formatFour target types monitored simultaneously. Light: a box shows three coloured lights and a panel cycles colours at random; you press when they match. Scan: a named vehicle (tank, aircraft, two-wheeler) must be picked out of a panel that a scan line reveals only in slivers. System: an alphanumeric code has to be found in a scrolling list, 19 rows visible at a time in the real test. Scene: click every instance of a specified target in the central map panel, identified by colour, shape and direction of travel, ignoring the distractor shapes.
Format description from the published CBAT TMI test guides
(rafcbat.wordpress.com) and the Air Defence Academy test guides
(airdefenceacademy.com/testguides).
SkyWatch Target playing itself, our practice
version, not the real test. Play it
Skill area: Perception, memory and attention.
What candidates say
These points come from people who have sat the test, gathered from forums, community
chats and candidates who wrote to us afterwards. Nothing here is quoted or attributed. Each point is
graded by how many separate accounts back it up.
✓ Well established! Single account✕ Outdated? From the published guides
The real test adds an “unknown” unit, shown as a yellow diamond, plus flashing red priority targets that appear for a few seconds and have to be clicked straight away.
Easy to be caught out by if you haven’t met them before. Go in knowing they exist so they don’t cost you the whole first round.
✓ Well establishedReal test
Instructions get specific. You might get "damaged friendly truck heading north", and then only those count.
It isn’t always "click all enemy tanks". Read each instruction properly. Over-clicking hurts you as much as missing.
✓ Well establishedReal test
It runs as eight or nine rounds that build, each one adding more objects to find and more items in the list panel.
It starts gently, so use the early rounds to lock in your scan pattern before the load climbs.
! Single accountStructure
Anchor on the list panel codes, because they’re the only thing running constantly. Keep colours and vehicles in your peripheral vision, and clear map tasks the second they appear.
The logic is that lights and vehicles only match now and then, and map tasks are instant, while the codes never stop. Several people worked out this same order on their own, which is usually a sign it’s right.
✓ Well establishedStrategy
The Scan panel shows only a thin slice of the vehicle at a time, sliding past as if through a letterbox, and the slice is enlarged and a little blurry.
Several people who sat it described it this way. Some vehicles look almost the same until about half the shape has gone past, so it takes more time away from the other panels than you expect. Don’t commit on the first sliver unless the shape is unmistakable.
✓ Well establishedScan panel
Practise it on SkyWatch
Our Target game runs the four panels at once: the lights, the scan, the code list and the map. The tutorial unlocks the panels one by one, so you learn each task before you juggle them.
You can play it without an account.
2,400+
practice runs played on SkyWatch
95%
of players who practised 10+ times improved on their first runs
This page is one part of the complete CBAT guide,
which also covers how the day runs, the pass marks and the domain minimums. Or see
every CBAT test on one page.