Air refueling optimisation for more agile and efficient military deployment operations

Abstract

Strategic airlift is a crucial capability for any country that wants to protect its global interests around the world. Air refueling may offer more agile and efficient airlift capabilities by increasing cargo aircraft payload and shortening airlift time. We investigated whether air refueling can shorten the total time of an airlift operation and decrease the number of cargo aircraft sorties required in a deployment scenario, especially where the distance between origin and destination is within the range of cargo aircraft. We introduced two mathematical models to compare the total airlift time and number of cargo aircraft required for given origin-destination and tanker base locations and total freight to be moved. We optimised initial cargo and fuel amount for cargo aircraft along with rendezvous point coordinates to minimise total airlift time. We used a numerical example to show that substantial airlift time and cargo aircraft sortie savings are possible through air refueling.