Optimizing Intratheater Military Airlift in Iraq and Afghanistan

Abstract : The Air Tasking and Efficiency Model (ATEM) has been used since 2006. Its development was motivated by an urgent need to plan and evaluate intratheater airlift of passengers and palletized freight for Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. ATEM plans routes and aircraft configurations (capacity of passenger seats and pallet positions) for a heterogeneous fleet of aircraft flying between multiple airfields. ATEM respects limits on crew duty periods, times and abilities of each airfield to handle and fuel each aircraft type, and aircraft speed and carrying capacity. Initially, ATEM advised improving daily and weekly route ensembles, conveying more passengers and pallets and using fewer aircraft than prior manually generated solutions. This early use reduced the required number of ground convoys and thereby exposure to improvised explosive devices. Later, ATEM advised where to advantageously move aircraft to new home airfields, how to shift aircraft between theaters, and when to bring aircraft home from war.