Analysis of aircraft sortie generation with the use of a fork-join queueing network model
✍ Scribed by Dennis C. Dietz; Richard C. Jenkins
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 86 KB
- Volume
- 44
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-069X
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✦ Synopsis
This article presents an approximate analytical method for evaluating an aircraft sortie generation process. The process is modeled as a closed network of multiserver queues and fork-join nodes that allow concurrent service activities. The model uses a variation of mean value analysis (MVA) to capture the effect of mean service times, resource levels, and network topology on performance measures including resource utilizations and the overall sortie generation rate. The quality of the analytical approximation is demonstrated through comparison with simulation results. ᭧ 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.* Naval Research Logistics 44: 153-164, 1997
1. Introduction
Central to many theater-level analyses involving military aircraft is a determination of the frequency with which the aircraft can be employed in combat. Often referred to as operational readiness, this factor can be measured by numerical values such as aircraft availability (portion of time aircraft are mission capable) or sortie generation rate (sustainable number of aircraft launches per time period). These values can be difficult to determine because they depend on both the inherent reliability/maintainability characteristics of the aircraft and the resource constraints within the supporting logistics system [4]. In order to gain insight into operational readiness issues, analysts have historically employed simulation tools such as the logistics composite model (LCOM) [6,8], the sortie generation model (SGM) [1], theater simulation of airbase resources (TSAR) [7], and Dyna-Sim [12].
Unfortunately, comprehensive evaluation of operational concepts by using simulation can be very tedious. Because of random variation in simulation output, multiple replications and careful experimental design are required to place acceptable confidence bounds on results. Analytical queueing network approaches have been considered as alternatives to simulation, but no method has yet been been offered to address the problem of concurrent (fork-join) repair of different aircraft subsystems.