Optimizing Airborne Area Surveillance Asset Placement
Abstract
Currently there is no automated planning tool for the optimum positioning of USAF area surveillance assets for a theater level campaign. This research seeks to find the optimum or near optimum placement of the limited USAF airborne surveillance assets against a theater level target set. The problem of finding the optimum orbit points can be modeled as a classic maximal covering location problem (MCLP). Operational constraints on the placement of surveillance aircraft can be handled by preprocessing the potential orbit points to eliminate infeasible orbit points. Heavy emphasis is placed on preprocessing the data to reduce problem size and hence solution time. The aggregation of both the potential orbit points and targets was accomplished without loss of locational information. An existing heuristic was used to find a solution in a very short time. The heuristic finds the optimum orbit points for the available aircraft and any alternate solutions. Allocation decisions can then be accomplished.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 18, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA324133
Entities
People
- Douglas E. Fuller
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology