Title:
Mission Capture Rate versus Turnaround Time and Fleet Size for the Military Spaceplane
Mission Capture Rate versus Turnaround Time and Fleet Size for the Military Spaceplane
Author(s)
Kokan, Timothy Salim
Olds, John R.
Olds, John R.
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Abstract
The United States Air Force Research Laboratory
(AFRL) is conducting research into a military
spaceplane (MSP) through the Military Spaceplane
System Technology Program Office. The goal of this
program is to provide the Air Force with safe, reliable,
affordable, and routine access to space.
An important mission performance metric of the
MSP program is the mission capture rate. The mission
capture rate is a measure of the MSP’s ability to meet
mission sortie requirements. Extending this to a fleet of
MSPs, the mission capture rate is defined as the total
number of sorties the fleet is capable of divided by the
total required number of sorties.
This research analyzes the relationship between
mission capture rate and both turnaround time and fleet
size. The turnaround time is the time between when the
vehicle lands and when it can take off again. During
this time the vehicle is refueled, maintenance and repair
work is done, and the payload is loaded.
As turnaround time decreases and fleet size
increases, the mission capture rate will increase. A
precise definition of this relationship is made in order to
determine the necessary fleet size for a given
turnaround time subject to a desired mission capture
rate.
A Monte Carlo simulation is performed to
probabilistically analyze the mission capture rates. This
analysis takes into account uncertainties in the
utilization requirements of the MSP fleet. These
uncertainties include the number of wars within the
simulation period, the starting date & duration of each
war, and each war’s required sortie rate.
This analysis utilizes Crystal Ball Pro® along with
Microsoft Excel®. This gives the analysis technique
compatibility with commonly used computer platforms.
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Date Issued
2002-07
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158787 bytes
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Paper