A REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUE TO LOCATE AUSTERE ENTRY LANDING ZONES FOR MILITARY AIRCRAFT

A new tool compatible with ArcGIS was recently developed to facilitate the process of locating austere entry landing zones for military aircraft. Using unique spatial datasets such as land classification, soil classification, soil moisture, and slope, along with predefined landing zone geometry specifications, binary suitability filters are generated as input criteria for locating landing zones. Datasets are filtered either by selecting unique values (e.g., unobstructed land classifications such as barren, crop, or pasture land) or a single threshold value (e.g., less than 3% rise in slope) that are compatible with landing zone requirements. A supplemental strength classification tool, which uses soil moisture and classification datasets to generate soil strength maps expressed as California Bearing Ratio values, is used to generate strength filters. Unique landing zones are calculated with 95% and 100% suitability confidence levels. Landing zones in different climatic regions in California and Eastern Europe were detected using this technique, and results were compared to ground truth observations made in the field. From preliminary testing, the austere entry landing zone tool appears robust, though input dataset resolution largely affects perceived results. Future improvements to this tool will include customizable, user-defined confidence levels based on input dataset quality and recommendations for ideal input dataset resolution.