Preliminary Survey of Icing Conditions Measured During Routine Transcontinental Airline Operation

Icing data collected on routine operations by four DC-4-type aircraft equipped with NACA pressure-type icing-rate meters are presented as preliminary information obtained from a statistical icing data program sponsored by the NACA with the cooperation of many airline companies and the United States Air Force. The program is continuing on a much greater scale to provide large quantities of data from many air routes in the United States and overseas. Areas not covered by established air routes are also being included in the survey. The four aircraft which collected the data presented in this report were operated by United Air Lines over a transcontinental route from January through May, 1951. An analysis of the pressure-type icing-rate meter was satisfactory for collecting statistical data during routine operations. Data obtained on routine flight icing encounters from.these four instrumented aircraft, although insufficient for a conclusive statistical analysis, provide a greater quantity and considerably more realistic information than that obtained from random research flights. A summary of statistical data will be published when the information obtained daring the 1951-52 icing season and that to be obtained during the 1952-53 season can be analyzed and assembled. The 1951-52 data already analyzed indicate that the quantity, quality, and range of icing information being provided by this expanded program should afford a sound basis for ice-protection-system design by defining the important meteorological parameters of the icing cloud

Understanding Innovation Adoption in the Air Force

Innovation adoption has become a critical issue for organizations in both the public and private sectors. The search for competitive advantage has led to the recognition that innovation is a vital ingredient for an organization\u27s survival and profitability in this information age. The United States Air Force is seeking to adapt to this new information age by transforming its business processes in order to sustain its competitive advantage as the world\u27s most respected air force. Adopting innovations and integrating new or improved technologies, capabilities, concepts, and processes into Air Force planning and acquisition activities, organizations, and operations are goals of Air Force Transformation. Customer Relationship Management is one such innovation that organizations are pursuing to capture competitive advantage. CRM adoption and implementation successes and failures have been well-documented; however, organizational innovation adoption studies and CRM adoption studies in the United States Air Force-within the context of Innovation Diffusion Theory-could not be found. This research attempts to bridge this gap in the literature. Three innovation characteristics from Diffusion of Innovation Theory and three organizational characteristics, which were found to be significant antecedents to innovation adoption in prior studies, were used to develop innovation adoption hypotheses. These hypotheses were then tested using correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. This research seeks to aid in increasing the understanding of the influences on CRM process innovation adoption within an Air Force organization

Architectural Considerations for Single Operator Management of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Recently, small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have become ubiquitous in military battlefield operations due to their intelligence collection capabilities. However, these unmanned systems consistently demonstrate limitations and shortfalls with respect to size, weight, range, line of sight and information management. The United States Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047 describes an action plan for improved UAS employment which calls out single operator, multi-vehicle mission configurations. This thesis analyzes the information architecture using future concepts of operations, such as biologically-inspired flocking mechanisms. The analysis and empirical results present insight into the engineering of single-operator multiple-vehicle architectures

Transportation Modeling of Remote Radar Sites and Support Depots

The North Warning System (NWS), a joint program of the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), is responsible for the maintenance of 47 remote radar sites across northern Canada. NWS\u27s current airlift operations, which support the radar maintenance activities, consist of both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft positioned at five support depots. This thesis considers whether a reconfiguration of these support depots and the assignment of radar sites to them can result in either an airlift or total cost savings for NWS. Mixed integer linear programming models were formulated to address the questions surrounding a reconfiguration of the NWS which might gain airlift cost savings. Several operational scenarios were considered. The analysis identifies that cost savings may be realized through a number of possible actions

Depot-Level Simulation and Multivariate Analysis on B-1 High Velocity Maintenance

The objective of this thesis is to gain insights on the B-1B depot maintenance operations, with a focus on direct maintenance hours or burn rate, under the implementation of High Velocity Maintenance (HVM). Based on historical depot maintenance data and the current B-1 depot HVM prototype data, a discrete-event simulation model is developed using Arena 12.0. Some United States Air Force supply chain influences, such as manning levels and kitting characteristics of the B-1 depot operations, are incorporated in our models as design factors. The model captures the stochastic nature of 30 HVM tasks performed on one B-1 aircraft in a representative HVM cycle at the B-1 depot located in Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base. To examine the impact of HVM, we vary the levels of the design factors and conduct a design of experiment (DOE). The DOE analysis reveals that manning levels and kitting characteristics have statistically significant impact on some HVM task completion times, which are used collectively as a surrogate measure for burn rate. In particular, manning schedule with a centric focus on direct maintenance, high task kit availability, and small kit deficiency produce the highest burn rate. Additionally, by performing multivariate analysis, we are able to reduce the dimensionality of the output statistics and conclude that kit deficiency is the main driver for HVM task duration with our simulation

An Analysis of a Lighting Prediction Threshold for 45th Weather Squadron Electric Field Mill Data

The mission of the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) is to “exploit the weather to assure safe access to air and space” for Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in support of various operations (United States Air Force, n.d.). To support that mission the 45 WS hosts a suite of weather detection instruments that include a lightning warning system that consists of an array of 31 electric field mills (EFM) and a lightning detection and ranging system (Department of the Air Force, 1976). Electric field mills at Cape Canaveral continuously record data from 31 separate EFM sites 24 hours a day at a rate of 50 Hz. This produces 4,320,000 lines of recorded data daily for each EFM site, a total of more than 16 billion data points annually for the active thunderstorm season. This study seeks to determine a single electric field mill reading threshold for lightning onset and a separate single EFM reading threshold for lightning cessation. Statistical analysis of the EFM and Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) parameters show there is no measurable correlation between EFM readings and lightning activity. Further, attempts to build models using threshold analysis, standard least squares regression fitting, nominal logistic regression fitting, and negative binomial regression fitting are unable to accurately predict any meaningful amount of lightning activity. The best of these models only account for 16% of the variance in the dataset. Overall results show EFM readings do not correlate well with lightning activity and any attempts to predict lightning proved ineffective

Extending safety assessment methods for remotely piloted aircraft operations in the national airspace system

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2012."June 2012." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-118).Remotely Piloted Aircraft operations are growing rapidly in the United States specifically for the Department of Defense to achieve training needs. To ensure the safety of the National Airspace System is maintained to a high standard, Remotely Piloted Aircraft operations are being assessed on a case by case basis by the Federal Aviation Administration for approval of a Certificate of Authorization. FAA guidance currently requires the use of human observers to ensure safe separation of RPA operations from other aircraft. The United States Air Force intends to use technology to replace the human observers, but a safety assessment must be conducted for approval of any such technology. The objective of this thesis is to examine the process and results of traditional safety assessment methods used by the United States Air Force as well as apply the same information as a case study to an innovative method called the influence matrix framework. The influence matrix framework will be analyzed by applying a clustering technique to gain insight about the benefits and challenges of the assessment method for future systems. RPA operations at Cannon Air Force Base, NM propose the use of ground-based radars to monitor the airspace around the RPA. The Air Force Safety Center worked together with MIT Lincoln Laboratory for the safety assessment process of the groundbased radars. The knowledge gained in that process is documented in this thesis. Next, that system architecture is further applied to the influence matrix framework for analysis. The influence matrix represents the expected influence of element behavior changes on hazard risk. The framework is manipulated with a clustering technique to analyze results when changing the scope of the safety assessment method. In this work, the application of the influence matrix provided insights into the functionality of the ground-based radar system and usefulness of the IM method. The clustering technique provided a foundation for a formal process to handle scoping challenges for future complex system safety assessments. For the future, this research will have to be expanded further to better formalize the modeling and assessment of the influence matrix.by Alexander C. Horrell.S.M

UNDERMINED, OVERUSED, AND MISSION OBSESSED: AN ANALYSIS OF THE EROSION OF ETHICS AND THE PROLIFERATION OF COMBAT CULTURE IN SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

Special operations forces (SOF) have not stepped off the battlefield in twenty years, and the strains of war are beginning to show. This thesis analyzes the culture and ethical foundation of Special Operations Command (SOCOM) by examining the internal and external factors influencing the force. A once prestigious reputation has been marred with accounts of ethical misconduct and war crimes. In response, SOCOM conducted a force-wide comprehensive ethics review in 2019. While SOCOM’s own report admitted that problems within the organization exist, it did not identify the causal factors involved let alone offer a remedy to address them. Drawing on theories from the fields of social psychology, anthropology, moral philosophy, and organizational management reveals the impact of internal and external influences on human behavior. Analysis of these factors suggests that SOCOM does have an ethics problem and that the problem is intrinsically linked to the misaligned culture. A culture shaped by combat. Overdemand and overreliance on SOF has resulted in unsustainable growth, a mismanaged force, and identity issues within SOCOM. The organizational issues are further influenced by the ideals of American exceptionalism and complicated by changing social values and norms. SOCOM is a complex organization. Understanding the influences that contribute to unethical behavior is critical for SOCOM to regain the trust of the American public and refocus the force.Major, United States Air ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

24/7: Drone Operations and the Distributed Work of War

How does waging war effectively fade into the background for most Americans, even as it is one of the most defining aspects of the United States’ actions and priorities, both domestically and internationally? This dissertation takes up one dimension of this question by ethnographically engaging with a particular mode of contemporary US war making that involves the deployment of drones, large and high-altitude aerial vehicles, remotely controlled from within the United States. Based on fieldwork conducted over fourteen months between 2010 and 2015 within the US with communities involved in the deployment, planning, or assessment of Air Force drone operations, a primary contribution of the dissertation is to refocus critical discourses around drones through the lens of labor and the work entailed in war. By examining the divisions of labor implicated in ongoing drone warfare, a wider set of questions and implications takes shape about the nature of contemporary American war and where different kinds of responsibilities and modes of normalization lie. The dissertation begins by arguing that the distributions of action and control that characterize drone operations are neither obvious nor necessary, but rather have taken hold only in the context of specific historical conditions of possibility. These conditions are what enable drone operations to be seen as an effective and ideal form of US military engagement, and involve interwoven developments in post-World War II military command and control theory, digital data, global information networks, and a reliance on legal frameworks that render state violence justified. The dissertation also examines the discrepancies between the imagined capacities of “unmanned” and “autonomous” drones and the current practices that constitute and maintain these technologies, which must be continually managed and constructed as effective and legitimate actors through professionalized military discourses and practices. The second half of the dissertation, more ethnographic in focus, examines how drone operations are implicated in changing conceptions of military service and military-civilian distinctions. Through an examination of the tensions and controversies that have arisen around drone pilots, the dissertation presents how Air Force pilots and commanders involved in drone operations construct and position the value of drone operations as meaningful and honorable military service. The analysis demonstrates that while officers put forward the value of their work as professional and altruistic service, at the same time, an irreconcilable tension exists because the military labor of drone operations bears increasing similarity to other forms of contemporary civilian work, characterized by the language of compensation, flexibility, and in/security. The dissertation concludes by proposing the concept of the warzone as a way to encompass all the places in which war occurs, its consequences on the battlefield, but also its sites of execution and the range of people, places, and practices that are implicated in the ongoing conduct of war. The dissertation demonstrates that the increasing deployment of drone operations is a contributing factor to the seeming invisible state of war for the majority of Americans. However, this is not necessarily because war is being conducted at a distance, as most journalists and scholars propose. Rather it is because war is being conducted, sometimes literally, in Americans’ backyards, close-by in the United States, in ways that are obfuscated or rendered merely mundane

A Future-Based Risk Assessment for the Survivability of Long Range Strike Systems

The United States Air Force today faces the challenge of allocating development resources to prepare for future force projection requirements. In particular, the Air Force\u27s core competency of Global Attack implies a future capability that can quickly and successfully deliver combat effects anywhere in the world with impunity. Understanding that the future threat environment is dynamic and that continued advancements by adversaries will likely degrade the technical superiority of today\u27s weapon systems, the need arises for a planning model to direct development funding to areas with the greatest probability of successfully defending the strike vehicle of 2035. Examining this problem posed two distinct challenges. The first was to determine the most likely course of Integrated Air Defense System technology through the time period of interest--allowing for plausible disruptive technologies that generate orders-of-magnitude improvement in capability or even change the nature of air defense systems. The second challenge was to characterize future adversaries--requiring a broad look at political and economic trends as presented in AF 2025, SPACECAST 2020 and other relevant future studies. Based on these studies, threat scenarios were generated from technical assessments of emerging technologies and evaluated using the Risk Filtering, Ranking and Management (RFRM) technique (Haimes, 2004) to explore the most severe threats to a future global strike air vehicle. The application of RFRM to the problem created a coherent threat hierarchy that enables the decision maker to examine anticipated hostile systems that may counter key U.S. strengths of stealth, speed, and high altitude operations. Those threat scenarios were then evaluated using decision trees and sensitivity analysis to demonstrate how quantitative tools can be applied to a largely qualitative problem