Air refueling tanker allocation based on a multi-objective zero-one integer programming model

Abstract

The need to refuel aircraft traveling long distances is important because fuel tank capacities limit the range of aircraft, and landing to refuel may not be practical or even possible. To overcome this difficulty, aerial refueling can be performed en route along the aircraft’s travel path to extend its range. This paper considers the problem of identifying the locations along an aircraft flight path at which to conduct aerial refueling, given a limited number of refueling stations. Due to the inherent uncertainty of real-world cases, the cost of refueling is considered as an interval number, and the problem is mathematically presented as an interval multi-objective zero-one integer programming model. To solve the model, a new version of the modified label-correcting method and a genetic algorithm are proposed. Moreover, the applicability and efficiency of the proposed solution approaches are examined and compared using some randomly generated test problems.