LCAC Mission Planner (LMP)

Planning the use of a Landing Craft Aircraft Cushion (LCAC) vehicle within a mission requires the definition of navigation routes and cargo loads that obey environment, vehicle performance, tactical, and crew availability constraints. Currently, LCAC planning is mostly a manual task that requires the use of multiple volumes of manuals and data. ĀConsequently, planning currently requires over four hours per mission and years of training. We propose to develop the LCAC Mission Planner (LMP) system, which will support LCAC planners with data integration, calculations, navigation, and in making load plan decisions. The software will enable LCAC planners and navigators to quickly plan the utilization of an LCAC while ensuring compliance with safety, vehicle, and mission constraints. LMP capabilities include: DNC charts integration, automated plan verification, timeline scheduling, automated route generation, automated load plan generation, and generation of planning products such as the mission brief and planning worksheets. LMP's main innovations include the following: LMP plan verification capabilities ensure plans satisfy safety, vehicle, and mission constraints. LMP timeline scheduling, route and load planning capabilities help planners decide the allocation of LCAC vehicles to mission tasks. LMP supports mission monitoring and re-planning onboard an LCAC vehicle.