5th Bomber wing, USAF awards SBIR Phase III contract to OpsLab
OpsLab has been awarded a SBIR Phase III contract to automate the flying squadron schedule with the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB.
The fighter community was the first to adopt the automation of flying squadron scheduling with the F16, F35, A10 and T38 MDS. The 23 BS is the first Air Force Global Strike Command, as well as the first multi-compartment aircraft to automate the scheduling process with OpsLab.
An ongoing challenge in 23 BS crew scheduling is tracking Combat Mission Readiness (CMR) and Basic Mission Readiness (BMC) status, RAP, Currencies and LOX qualifications. This is the case for the less experienced MQT students who follow a syllabus with specific start and end dates, and for the more experienced crew members who progress through Single Mission Lead (SML) and Multi Mission Lead (MML) upgrade at their own pace.
For building short and long-range schedules, OpsLab automatically ingests turn patterns from maintenance, along with historical data, to determine which events are scheduled for each GO. Events scheduled in each GO are based on the phase of training the squadron is in.
An additional challenge for the scheduling shop is balancing the number of syllabus and upgrade flight lines alongside pure RAP flight lines. The balance between the two competing priorities is dynamic and often changes based on DO priorities. OpsLab gives the scheduling shop the ability to handle dynamic DO priorities, with configurations inside of the application.
To provide an end-to-end scheduling solution, OpsLab schedules both crew members in upgrade programs in accordance with their syllabus, as well as non-upgrade crew members who fly CT to maintain BMC/CMR status and RAP. For every flight and simulator event, a specific formation is required for that event to be effective. OpsLab automatically validates that formations are legal during the schedule build, and during reflows. This is achieved by mapping crew members to a specific seat, in a specific compartment (Pilot, WSO, or EWO), with the specific LOX and currency qualifications for that event.
Currently at 23 BS, scheduling is handled manually, line by line by schedulers; it is tedious, time-consuming, and error prone due to the complexities.
The solution that OpsLab’s automated flying scheduling is achieving is providing situational awareness to project forward a squadron’s CMR readiness, increasing pilot throughput, and allowing instructors to focus more on instructing than spending time in the scheduling shop building and reflowing schedules.
