Air Mobility Analysis. Estimating capacity of strategic airlift and air-to-air refuelling

Air mobility consists of airlifts, air-to-air refuelling and air mobility support. The focus of this report is on airlift. Analysis and models of airlift must consider aircraft and crews, loads, airfields and routes, and ground support. Possible aims are support to defence planning and studies, operational planning or crisis planning. In this case, we focus on a Swedish study concerned with acquisition of future air mobility assets. Capacity can be analysed with optimization models, simulation models or simple calculation tools. Five examples have been reviewed: US models NRMO, ADANS and ACE, and studies by EU and Swedish FMV. Our recommendation is that a calculation tool be used, since they are relatively easy to use and provide enough accuracy in this case. An airlift capacity model - TPK - corresponding to the recommendation has been implemented in Excel, and is included with the report on a CD-ROM. For air-to-air refuelling, an overview of the area is presented together with a proposed analysis method and a comparison between platforms based on military airlifters and civilian airliners, with respect to capacity and cost efficency.