Rescuing Downed Aircrews: The Value of Time

Abstract

Abstract : U.S. air power has been a major contributor to the success of military operations. Yet that success has not come without losses of aircraft and personnel. An important aspect of U.S. Air Force (USAF) operations is its ability to rescue pilots, crews, and passengers whose aircraft have been brought down by enemy action, weather, or mechanical failure. Operations to rescue downed aircrews and passengers are often joint operations involving military, diplomatic and civilian organizations. The USAF has dedicated units specially trained and equipped for such missions. Given the drawdown in military operations, declining defense budgets, and the aging of key pieces of equipment, it would be useful if the Air Force had a robust metric by which it could assess the cost-effectiveness of various components of the personnel recovery (PR) process. While it is obvious that getting to downed aircrews faster or improving their survivability is good, the degree to which these improve the rescuability of downed personnel has not been previously quantified. We define a downed aircrew as rescuable if they have not been killed or captured. Absent information relating rescuability and time, it is not possible to quantify the effectiveness of changes to the way PR is currently conducted. Therefore, the current research seeks to quantify the relationship between rescuability and time so that the most cost-effective options for increasing the rescuability of downed personnel can be pursued.