Air refueling planning for CAP positions maintenance mission on multiple defense layers of the aircraft carrier

Air refueling plays an important role in the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) positions maintenance mission on multiple defense layers of the aircraft carrier. Effective air refueling can extend the airborne time of the fighter aircraft and ensure the carrier's continuous air superiority in the far-sea combat environment. However, the limited deck resources and the coupled relationship between refueling position planning and aircraft scheduling make this problem more challenging. To address the complex multi-constraint optimization of air refueling planning for CAP positions maintenance, an air refueling planning method based on intelligent optimization algorithm is proposed. First, an air refueling planning model is established, incorporating the fuel consumption model, the refueling position and flight path model, and the aircraft scheduling model. Then a plan effectiveness evaluation model based on mission requirements is formulated, considering fuel consumption, frequency of aircraft carrier deck use, and force requirement. Subsequently, an Adaptive Hybrid PSO (AHPSO)-based optimization method is developed for this application by integrating simulated annealing and adaptive parameter adjustment into the PSO framework. The resulting integrated method enables the coupled optimization of refueling positions and aircraft scheduling. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the case without air refueling, with the support of the tankers, the deck usage frequency can be reduced by 66.67%, the force requirement can be reduced by 22.2%, and the total fuel consumption can be reduced by 11.11%. Additionally, the impact of various mission parameters on the air refueling plan is analyzed. Finally, the superiority of the proposed algorithm is validated through comparisons with other algorithms.