Aerial logistics management for carrier onboard delivery

Abstract

Carrier onboard delivery (COD) is the use of aircraft to transport people and cargo from a forward logistics site (FLS) to a carrier strike group (CSG). The goal of this thesis is to study how the real-time cargo tracking capability can reduce the delay of high-priority cargo while increasing that of low-priority cargo. To do so, we analyze data from COD operations between 2010 and 2015 to develop a simulation model, and use those data to infer model parameters. Our simulation results indicate that, with two C-2A aircraft currently used by the Navy, real-time cargo tracking can reduce the delay of high-priority cargo by more than 50%, while increasing that of low-priority cargo by about 25%. The Navy plans to replace C-2A with a variant of V-22 Osprey for COD operations in the near future, and is conducting cargo space studies to facilitate this transition. By testing a few different model parameters based on studies available for V-22, our simulation results indicate a similar observation of delay tradeoff between high-priority cargo and low-priority cargo, although the tradeoff is less pronounced, mainly because three V-22 will be stationed at the FLS.