Undergraduate Research

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Browsing Undergraduate Research by Author "Green, Haley"

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    Fleet Composition and Risk for US Army Airborne Operations
    (2026) Green, Haley; Gleason, Matthew; McConnell, Brandon M.
    Airborne operations rely on effective load planning to rapidly deploy personnel and equipment into contested environments. This process requires assigning resources to aircraft while satisfying constraints such as capacity limits, leadership distribution, and team integrity. Although recent optimization-based frameworks have improved automation of manifest generation, their effectiveness depends on underlying assumptions and their ability to represent realistic operational conditions. This study extends an existing optimization model by exploring different fleet compositions and the impact to operational risk in the event of aircraft loss due to weather, mechanical failure, or enemy action. Rather than altering the core structure, the model is adapted to evaluate how changes in aircraft types, specifically varying mixes of C-17 and C-130 platforms with their different delivery capacities, influence load planning outcomes. Computational experiments are conducted across multiple scenarios to assess the impact of these variations on personnel distribution, constraint satisfaction, and overall solution quality with particular emphasis on risk. Results are then compared against baseline model outputs and analyzed using data visualization techniques to identify trends and trade-offs across configurations. This research provides insight into how platform selection influences automated load planning performance and associated risks to mission and risks to force.