A Tabu Search Metaheuristic for the Air Refueling Tanker Assignment Problem

In a joint effort between Air Mobility Command (AMC) and the Air Force Institute of Technology, we present a Tanker Assignment Problem (TAI) Tool capable of providing tanker mission plans for deployment scenarios. Due to the complex nature of extracting a mission plan from the Combined Mating and Ranging Planning System (CMARPS), AMC requires a tool to provide similar results in a simpler and less time consuming manner. The tool developed allows AMC to input several receiver groups consisting of various aircraft types and numbers. Each receiver group contains a point of origin and destination, with the option of providing one waypoint along the path. In addition, each group has a ready to load date (RLD) and required delivery date (RDD). The user is also able to specify the locations of military tanker aircraft. The main goal of this tool is to assign the tankers to the different refueling points of the receiver groups so that all receiver groups arrive before their RDD. Secondary goals include the reuse of tankers and limiting the total flight distance for all tanker aircraft. The TAP Tool uses the heuristic technique tabu search to determine an assignment of tankers to receiver groups during a deployment.