Tactical Flight Management—An Overview

Tactical Flight Management may be thought of as the ability to give the pilot of a tactical aircraft efficient, integrated use of the resources available to him: these include weapons, fuel, sensor, controls, displays, and time. Survivability and mission effectiveness are key measures of a successful tactical flight management system. This paper describes several technologies, developed under the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory Tactical Flight Management Program, each intended to increase the effectiveness of the typical tactical mission while maintaining or increasing the overall survivability. Four dimensional (4-D) navigation and control with its resultant mission reference paths and control laws is necessary for maintaining any assigned or computed mission arrival times (TOA's). Accurate time control is an essential part of mission effectiveness and survivability. The energy management technique for climb, cruise and descent fuel and time control is developed, as is the algorithm used for computing maximum survivable, low flight level penetration of dense threat phase of weapon delivery.