Aircraft Battle Damage Repair (ABDR) Strategies and Techniques: Introduction
Abstract
The overall motivation for this Lecture Series (LS) springs from the following interwoven issues: 1) Engagement of NATO has been increasing, albeit in low-intensity unconventional wars. 2) Recent experience of NATO forces requires maintenance of high combat readiness. 3) Deployment of air assets is increasingly crucial to warfighter doctrine and tactical success. 4) Resources for acquisition of new systems have been steadily falling. 5) Legacy systems, which bring in their wake added set of issues, have been increasing fractions of the assets available to the military commanders. 6) Damage to air platforms by ground fire is an ever increasing menace. 7) Temporary repair of aircraft that have suffered battle damage usually needs to be carried out in. make-shift bases that are far from home territory under severe time constraint. 8) Repair is intimately intertwined with certification and safety issues. The LS focuses on repair of damaged air combat platforms including fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and their major subsystems and components. The experience base for evolution of procedures and processes include cases of aircraft that sustained damage in the brief conflict in Bosnia, and during the ongoing wars in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom-IOF, launched in2003) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom- IEF that was initiated in 2001). Absence of the extensive facilities available at air logistics centers at home is a facet of the latter two wars. During a conflict, a high value air asset either a fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft that is non-deployable results in handicapping the military commander, hence urgency is an inevitable issue in the design and fabrication of the BDR, with the focus on flight-safety critical subsystems and components.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA572778
Entities
People
- S. G. Sampath