Pilots of fighter aircraft are often exposed to the risk of being hit by enemy fire from ground-based threats. It has been argued that the pilots could be aided by a tactical support system that automatically assesses the danger posed by such threats and analyzes the survivability of the mission. It has also been argued that the automation design of such system must be properly adapted according to the pilots' needs. In this paper, empirical results are presented regarding the characteristics of an operator-centered survivability support system in the fighter aircraft domain, where both the development of the system and its automation design are discussed. The results indicate a strong potential for the survivability model and the automation guidelines within the fighter aircraft domain, but also a need for further refinements of the model and the guidelines to reflect the specific characteristics of the domain.