Author: Group Captain Derek K. Empson RAF (Retired) - former member of A.R.S.A.G.

Airplan_AAR

The AIRPLAN AAR program is one of five desktop PC / Laptop programs in the AIRPLAN Suite. It is helpful to have an understanding of the relationship between these programs to appreciate the purpose and value of AIRPLAN AAR. The suite contains the following complementary programs:

• Military Air Operations Planning Program (MAOP)
• Mixed Fleet Analysis program (MFA)
• Missions Database (MDB)
• Airlift (a recent addition to the AIRPLAN suite)
• Air-Refuelling Planning_v3 (AAR)

The efficient application of military air power depends on selecting the right aircraft for a particular task, having the right fleet composition (aircraft, crews and logistics), and optimising the mission plan to maximise the effectiveness of all forces. The AIRPLAN Suite is the only PC computer package expressly designed to achieve these goals across the whole spectrum of military air operations. It also can provide aircraft manufacturers with a valuable, timesaving, design and marketing tool.

In simple terms, the first two programs in the bulleted list, above, calculate the minimum number of crews, aircraft, flight hours, sorties and fuel required for any series of mission packages planned over any period of time. The programs also enable planners to optimise mission packages to match the capabilities of the numbers of aircraft and crews that can actually be made available. Both programs cater for all aircraft types and all operational roles (e.g. air defence, airlift, air-to-air refuelling, maritime patrol, AWACS, reconnaissance, etc.). Both carry out sortie scheduling (with dates and times), automatically calculate crew duty and rest periods, quantify predicted attrition losses (aircraft, crews and sorties), and display critical logistics requirements, when required.

The main difference between the MAOP and MFA programs is as follows. MAOP simultaneously calculates answers for up to six concurrent mission packages, flown by a single aircraft type (but any number of them). MFA calculates answers for up to three different aircraft types in separate or mixed fleets, each flying up to two different mission profiles simultaneously.

AIRPLAN programs are uniquely valuable not only for air campaign planning where several different aircraft types or fleets co-operate, but for quantifying the comparative capability of different aircraft types in meeting particular mission needs. The suite as a whole can make a major contribution to cost and operational effectiveness investment appraisals (COEIA), for aircraft selection and procurement decision processes. The meticulous calculation of the pervasive but often ignored influence of crews during sustained operations by both MAOP and MFA programs, greatly and uniquely increases the accuracy of results.

AIRPLAN programs can greatly assist military aircraft manufacturers to optimise the definition of aircraft performance targets, for cost-effectiveness analysis and for many other purposes. Manufacturers can additionally use AIRPLAN to evaluate their aircraft’s capability, to demonstrate it to customers, and to compare it with competitor aircraft in any operational scenario.

The third program in the above list, AIRPLAN MDB, stores pre-planned or oft-repeated missions, be they patrols or sorties to and from targets or destinations. Up to two hundred missions can be stored and individually copied, electronically, to the MAOP or MFA programs, as required. This saves data entry time.

The fourth program, AIRPLAN Airlift, facilitates the rapid and detailed mission planning and fleet employment optimization of transport aircraft fleets engaged in strategic and tactical airlift operations.

Last on the bulleted list is the AIRPLAN AAR program, the main subject of this web site. An essential first step in AAR planning is to determine how much fuel a receiver (or receivers) require, and when and where refuelling must take place. The second step is to calculate how many tankers, in the given geographical scenario, will be required to satisfy the AAR needs of the receiver aircraft. The third step is to assess how much fuel will be required at the tanker base over the duration of the operation. The fourth and final stage is to calculate the required composition and sortie rates of the tanker and receiver fleets, and if necessary, to modify planned missions so that they are achievable by available forces – tankers and receivers and their crews.

The purpose of the AIRPLAN AAR program is broadly to carry out the first three of the above steps. Then AIRPLAN MAOP or MFA, as appropriate, is used to complete the fourth planning process. Hence, AIRPLAN AAR, MAOP and MFA are complementary. Together, they provide a simple and rapid means of solving complex mission planning questions, including those requiring Air-to-Air Refuelling, as well as determining (in terms of crews and aircraft) the minimum and optimum composition of aircraft fleets. And finally, the AIRPLAN Suite enables planners to modify mission plans so that they are within the capability of whatever crews and aircraft are actually available. Hence, available forces should not then be over-tasked; neither should they be under-utilised if maximum sustained effort is required by a Commander.

Derek K. Empson