Vulnerability Modeling and Protective Measure Assessment Method for Ground Support Aircraft

In order to decrease the vulnerability of ground support aircraft under fragment/projectile attack, a vulnerability model of a ground support aircraft was established, and the vulnerability of the ground support aircraft in the typical attack direction was calculated. According to the geometric shape of the ground support aircraft and the distribution of critical components, the ground support aircraft is divided into different areas, and the armor protection efficiency of each area is assessed. The results show that the cockpit area, the front fuselage fuel tank area, and the rear fuselage fuel tank area have high protection efficiency, and these areas can be protected first when the armor weight is limited. On this basis, flexible use of vulnerability reduction measures, targeted reduction of highly vulnerable components, and repeated iterative analysis to achieve vulnerability index requirements are performed. Finally, a numerical simulation test was carried out on the A-10 ground support aircraft. After the vulnerability was reduced, the index design requirements were met under the B and C level kills, which verified the feasibility of the proposed method.